CSI: Fireworks
by Caitlin-Todd
Summary: Roses are red, violets are blue. Some people suck as summaries and I do too! It's a GS story: check it out! New and improved!
1. Chapter 1

**Author: Caitlin-Todd (a.k.a Isabelle)****  
Name: Fireworks  
Rating: K+  
Pairing: GS (Duh!)  
Spoilers: Maybe slight spoilery for "Nesting Dolls" but it's very subtle!  
Status: Finished - Yay!**

A/N: Some of you might recognize this story and wonder why it's been updated. Well it's quite simple really; I realized it needed a make-over and so I edited it from the beginning to the end. Hopefully there won't be any grammar errors left and it will all make sense. Also, I hope more people will review but of course that's not mandatory or anything. Just is a sign that I should keep uploading my fan fictions on here. And speaking of that; a new CSI fan fic is in the works right now. Hopefully it will be better than this in a few ways. You guys decide that. Enjoy!

* * *

It was time for assignments and for the first time in years Sara Sidle was actually late. She nearly ran through the hallway and as she was getting closer to the break room, she slowed down a bit. But kept cursing herself for being late even if nobody would blame her. She was usually one of the first in and sometimes never even left the office; instead ended up spending the night on the couch in the break room. One too many times.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late…traffic was murder!" she said with a blushed smile as she walked through the door. Everybody looked up at her with assignments in hand and didn't say anything at first.

"We were wondering when you would show up…rough night?" Nick asked with a teasing smile and Sara narrowed her eyes at him before walking over to the empty seat at the table.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Okay, so what do we got?" she asked and looked at Grissom.

"Warrick and Nick's got murder out on I-15…Catherine and I have rape/murder in Henderson" he said flatly while avoiding Sara's look. The others could tell that she wasn't going to be pleased since she was either hooked up with Nick or Warrick. Earlier rape cases she had taken too personal and since then Grissom refused her working one. At least not for now. They had never really talked about it before and Sara didn't think they needed to either.

"And what do I get? Pushing papers?" she asked sarcastically and now she got Grissom's full attention. He slowly took off his glasses and gave Sara a confused look.

"I didn't say that. You can go with Warrick and Nick" he said after a while and Sara sighed. Now the others knew for sure that she wasn't going to settle with any other case then the rape case. And once Sara had made up her mind there was hardly anything stopping her.

"Why not the rape case?" she asked and Grissom turned his attention to the others.

"Could you guys excuse us for a moment?" he asked with a troubled expression and Catherine was the first one to get out of her chair. She hinted at Nick and Warrick to come with her, while Sara refused to take her eyes of Grissom.

"Okay…_now_ I know I'm not just being paranoid! Why won't you let me work the rape case? Afraid I'm going to ruin the investigation?" Sara asked and leaned back in the chair with her eyes focused on Grissom. He sighed and turned around his chair to face her.

"Actually that's exactly what I'm afraid of. Cases like this isn't in your best interest to get involved with, Sara…not after what has happened in the past" he said compassionate.

"Grissom, you can't keep me from doing my job! Okay, I admit it; I got too carried away on those cases but like you said it was in the past. What makes you so sure I haven't learned from my mistakes? I thought you trusted me" she said and leaned forward.

"I do trust you, Sara, and if you were ready then you wouldn't react like this…" Grissom said and looked Sara straight in the eye, trying to get through to her somehow. He knew how stubborn she could be and in other situations that's what he admired about her. But right now he just wished that she would drop the whole thing and move on with another case.

"Don't you see, Grissom? If you really did trust me then you would let me work this case; no matter what my reaction was. Which, by the way, is totally called for considering that you have apparently deliberately place me on non-rape case for months now…I just never connected the dots until now" Sara said after a while and got out of her chair.

"Where are you going?" Grissom quickly asked when he noticed her heading for the door.

"To work on the case" Sara said flatly while turning around, facing him again.

"Well I'm sorry, but that's not possible. I'm your supervisor and you're not gong anywhere near this case" Grissom said while getting out of his chair. Sara just stared at him without saying anything at first. Grissom could tell that she was mad at him but he still wasn't going to change his mind. Even though it meant getting the silent treatment for weeks to come.

"You know, sooner or later I'm going to end up with a rape case. We are already a few men short as it is…you can't protect me forever, Grissom" she suddenly whispered and walked out the door before he even had time to respond. She quickly walked down the hallway and turned around the corner before walking into the locker room.

"How did it go?" Catherine suddenly asked as she closed her locker. Sara glanced at her before sitting down on the bench. There was no answer needed since Catherine knew Grissom better then anybody, and she knew he did what was possible to protect his team. Especially Sara since it was obvious that she had gotten too emotionally involved in several other cases before.

"Not good" Sara said and starred at the lockers in front of her. She really wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody, especially not Catherine since she would probably report it back to Grissom in the end.

"That bad, huh? Well, can't say I blame him" Catherine said and Sara glared at her.

"Don't you have a case to solve?" she asked sarcastically with a devious look. Catherine could almost feel the anger streaming out of her, and decided to shut up for the time being.

"I'm gone" she said and walked past Sara out of the room. Just as the door closed behind her, Sara banged her head against one of the lockers and cursed herself. Grissom was the reason why she was so pissed and not Catherine. This day was going to be very long and for once she hadn't overtime enough to take some time off.

* * *

"Why not?" Catherine asked as she pulled the Tahoe into the parking lot. Grissom sighed and glared at her without saying anything at first. He knew all to well why Catherine had suddenly a change of heart. It was due to a little conversation with Sara earlier in the locker room; after that she had been nagging Grissom about perhaps letting Sara work the case. To prove that emotions wouldn't get in the way of the investigation this time.

"Cath, you know that Sara isn't ready yet. Don't make me look like the big bad supervisor" Grissom said and Catherine couldn't help but smile at him.

"I think you're doing a mighty fine job of that yourself, Griss. She hates your guts" she said with a devious smile and turned off the car engine. They were at the crime scene now but both remained seated in the Tahoe. Grissom had that puzzled look on his face and Catherine knew that he seriously considered letting Sara in on the case after all. There was nothing saying that she couldn't handle it; perhaps this case would show him that she was ready.

"Well then I will have to get used to that, wouldn't I? Cath, it's obvious why you're doing this but it's not working. I stand by my decision" Grissom finally said and stepped out of the SUV. Catherine rolled her eyes and opened up the car door.

"So she's going to have a murder case instead? Call me crazy but some people would say that those cases are worse…what if she gets too emotionally involved with the victim there? We both know how easily things like that happened; especially to Sara" she said and walked around the car with her field kit in hand. Grissom glared at her once last time before walking through the front door.

All the shades were down, lamps dimmed and the smell of bleach hit the two CSIs as they stepped into the hallway. Catherine made a face and tried holding her breath but gave up when she realized that the smell wouldn't go away so easily. They put on their gloves as usually and looked around the room.

"Oh man…the guy did some serious over-cleaning before leaving! God!" she said and waved around with her hand, trying to make the thick layer of bleach smell disappear.

"Probably thought he could wash away all the evidence" Grissom said and turned on his flashlight before starting his walk-through in the house. Catherine put down her field kit on the floor for a moment and turned on her flashlight as well.

"Where's the girl?" she asked as she followed Grissom. He pointed his flashlight at the half-opened bedroom door and she walked over to it.

"Neighbor heard the screams and decided to call 911 since the victim apparently lived alone. Knew straight away that something was up" Brass said as he walked over to Grissom, looking down his notepad. Catherine glanced at him over her shoulder before slowly opening up the door with her other hand. She almost reluctantly stepped into the room and sighed loudly when she saw the young women lying across the bed. Her brown eyes were wide opened and staring up at the sealing, mouth half-opened in a silent scream and all the blood on the sheets almost made Catherine sick to her stomach.

"Poor thing…" she whispered just as Grissom walked into the room with the camera. She glanced at him and then turned her attention back to the dead body. It was never easy on these types of cases and if Catherine almost had a problem with it, Grissom didn't even want to think about what Sara would do. A simple murder case would do her some good and also prove what a damn good CSI she was.

* * *

Sara jumped out of the SUV and slammed the door shut with her field kit in hand. Warrick and Nick glanced at each other before looking back at her. Ever since they had left the lab she had been dead quiet which was very unusual. Especially on a murder case that would be a real challenge to solve; Sara was always up for some theories even before they entered the crime scene. But this time she kept her mouth shut as she crossed the yellow tape.

"Hey, Sara, wait up! What's the rush?" Nick yelled out suddenly and Sara stopped immediately.

"There's no rush. I'm just…eager to do my job like always" she said flatly.

"Yeah right! Which is why you're slamming doors and giving us the silent treatment? Besides, you never enter a crime scene _this_ fast" Nick said with an amusing smile. Sara glared at him without saying anything. Shen then slowly turned around again and continued walking towards the small crowd of coroners and police officers. Nick had been right; she had never acted like this before and especially not on the job. It wasn't news to any on the team that Sara could get too emotionally involved in some cases but that was the same for everybody. Both Warrick and Nick knew her bad mood was a result of the heated argument with Grissom just before they left the lab.

"You wanna talk to her?" Warrick asked and Nick looked over at Sara, whom was putting on her gloves and already taking a closer look at the body.

"Nah…she'll be alright. As long as it doesn't affect the case, there's no need to force it out of her" Nick said after a moment of silence and crossed the yellow tape.

As they were walking up towards the dead body, Sara glanced up at them and took out a swab from her kit. Nick put down his kit and got down on the ground beside her, also taking a closer look at the victim.

"Well I think it's safe to say that he died from a blow to the head" Nick said as he pointed at the open wound. Sara couldn't hide her smirk and when Nick looked over at her, the smirk grew even bigger.

"I hate to break your bubble, but he didn't die from that…" she said and picked up an empty bullet case from the ground. She held it up for Nick to see and the smirk stayed firmly in place when he realized that she was right. Which happened too often and gave her the pleasure to walk around with that smirk on her face the rest of the shift. But after all the years working together Nick was used to it and didn't even brother to argue with her. Because he knew that Sara would in the end get the last word.

"Right…and the plot thickens" Nick said and Sara bagged the bullet case with a grin.

* * *

In less than twelve hours it would be the 4th July and for most people that meant a happy time; celebrating with family and friends while enjoying the beautiful fireworks. But for some people life went on as regular without any celebration at all. To them 4th July was just another day but with more crime scenes to process and more scumbags to catch.

"Anything on the bullet case?" Sara asked as she walked into the lab, seeming more awake then the rest of the CSIs working the graveyard shift. But as they all knew she hardly ever slept so this was no longer any surprise or shock to them.

"Well I can tell you that it was fired with a .38 caliber but that's about it" Bobby said and Sara leaned in to take a closer look at the computer screen.

"Right…which means I have to return to the other evidence. Thanks, Bobby" Sara said and vanished down the hallway with an annoying expression on her face. And it only got worse when she noticed Grissom walking in her direction, his eyes focused on some papers in his hand. Deep down Sara wanted to turn the other way or walk through an invisible door to get away from him in that moment, but knew how that would look. So she just hoped that Grissom would be too busy to even notice her. For once that would be a good thing. But just a few seconds before they passed each other Grissom looked up and Sara continued walking right past him.

"Sara!" he called out and Sara reluctantly froze in the middle of the hallway, refusing to turn around.

"How's the murder case going?" Grissom asked and Sara could hear him walking towards her. The sound of his footsteps made her want to run away and hide, but she still didn't move.

"Fine" she said flatly. The anger still hadn't settled and even if it did she refused to let Grissom know.

"Really? Because I just talked to Nick and apparently it's not fine" Grissom said and Sara could sense that he was right behind her at this point. She quickly turned around and gave him an icy look.

"Have it ever occurred to you that we don't always need your help? There's really no need checking up on us every five minutes; we know what we are doing! Now if you excuse me I have a non-rape case to work out" she said and headed down the hallway. She could hear Grissom calling out her name again but this time she didn't stop. She rounded the corner and walked straight into Nick who was just coming out of the break room.

"Whoa! Going somewhere?" he asked and Sara glared at him before walking into the break room. She walked up the counter and poured herself a much-needed cup of coffee.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked from the doorway and Sara took a sip of the coffee before turning around.

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, leaning towards the counter and took another sip. Nick could tell from a mile away that she was lying through her teeth but didn't know how to drag the truth out of her.

"Oh I got a few theories but I doubt you wanna hear 'em!" Nick said with laughter and Sara just glared at him over the coffee cup.

"You're right; I don't" she said and in that moment Grissom appeared next to Nick in the doorway. Sara took one last swig of the coffee and froze up. She had hardly ever talked back to Grissom like that and knew that it would have consequences, but she wasn't sure she was ready for it. Not today of all days anyway. But she could tell that Grissom wasn't happy and Nick could tell that something was wrong.

"Uhm…I'm gonna go and check out the rest of the evidence" he said and glanced over at Sara before slowly walking away. Sara wished she could do the same but instead she put down the coffee cup on the counter and waited for Grissom to say something. But he just stared at her without a sound and finally Sara couldn't take it anymore.

"If you got something to say then say it…!" she said grumpy and looked him straight in the eye. Grissom stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"So I take it you're still upset about this morning?" Grissom asked and Sara didn't know if she should laugh or cry at this point. The man was either incredibly stupid or just really sarcastic.

"Thank you for finally noticing…what gave me away?" she asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. But she didn't look at him even though she could feel his gaze on her.

"Well, you don't try to hide it…at all. And you've never acted like this before here at the lab" he said in a sickly calm tone and Sara knew exactly what he was talking about. And she refused to bring it up for the hundred times because she was so tired of talking about it.

"There's a first time for everything" she said and finally glanced up at him. This time the anger seemed to have faded away and Grissom wondered if she maybe was just having a really bad day.

"For some people perhaps…but not for you. I don't want to blow this thing out of proportion but I think its best if you take a break" he said after a while and now he got Sara's full attention.

"A break? And you call this 'not blowing things out of proportion'? Grissom, we had an argument which was hardly the first or the last time…and for that I need to take a break? Please say you're kidding! You are…_right_?" Sara said and stared at him. When Grissom didn't say anything, she went cold.

"You're actually serious? You want me to take a break? For once when I'm actually not maxed out on overtime?" she snapped and Grissom just stared at her with the folder in his hand. The door was still closed and he was blocking the only exit while she was trapped on the other end.

"This is not about overtime, Sara, and you know it. It's not even about your behavior; that hasn't been appreciated by the way. I just think that a few days away from here would do you some good" Grissom said and a loud grunt suddenly escaped from Sara's mouth.

"And if I refuse?" she asked and with a dark look in her eyes all of the sudden.

"That's up to you…I'm not trying to act like your boss in this matter. If you feel that you don't need a break then there's nothing I can do about that" Grissom said and shrugged. Sara gave him one last look before walking past him and swinging the door open before disappearing out of the room.

* * *

**TBC... (And it gets better in case anybody feels this chapter seemed kind of boring or whatever)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclamier: I own the whole cast of "CSI" and the show itself - that's why I'm still living at home and writing fan fictions! XD**

A/N: Yeah...I keep forgetting the whole disclamier thing. Oooopsy!

* * *

The following hours Sara processed evidence with Nick in silence. Once in a while she would look up from the microscope and notice that he was staring at her, but didn't say anything. He knew that she didn't want to talk about whatever bothered her. So they continued to work as if nothing had happened earlier.

Sara couldn't help but think if Grissom could have been right. She almost felt guilty in being so cold towards him but that wasn't something she had planned on. Knowing that he didn't trust her enough to work a rape case was enough to make anybody pissed off. But walking around all day and snapping at people just wasn't her and she didn't like herself when she behaved like that. And it all came back to Grissom; it was after all because of him that she was angry. Not only because of their fight but because it was Grissom. The one person who's trust she so badly wanted but never seemed to get.

"So when are you gonna tell me?" Nick asked all of the sudden while they were putting away the last piece of evidence. Sara looked up at him with a slightly confused look.

"Tell you what?" she asked.

"About whatever is bothering you. And don't tell me you're fine, but I can tell you're not" Nick said and Sara realized that she had been thinking about Grissom and if she should apologize or not. The problem there was that she was still feeling pretty angry and doubted that the apology would sound sincere.

Nick was just about to ask once more what was wrong, but this time they were interrupted by Warrick who walked into the lab with a paper in his hand.

"Hey! Got a sec?" he asked and didn't seem to notice that something was up. Sara glanced at Nick before she walked over to Warrick.

"Sure. What do you got?" she asked and glanced down at the paper.

"Well possibly our murder weapon and a suspect to go with that" Warrick said and Sara flashed him a grateful smile before looking over at Nick.

"Excellent. How did you manage that?" Sara asked, actually seeming more chipper.

"Well that fingerprint you found on the bullet case belongs to one of the owners to a .38 caliber. Database also shows that he was arrested few years back for armed robbery" Warrick explained.

"Talk about being lucky! I'll drive!" Sara said and flashed Warrick a grin before heading out.

"Picture that" Warrick said and gave Nick a confusing look.

* * *

Catherine glanced down the hallway and caught a glimpse of Nick and Warrick before walking into the evidence room. She took out the folder and put it down on the table right in front of Grissom, who slowly lifted his head from the microscope.

"Well I got some bad news and I got some good news…which one do you prefer?" Catherine asked and Grissom gave her a puzzled look at first.

"News about what?" he asked and Catherine let out laughter without taking her eyes of him. But her smile slowly disappeared when she realized that he wasn't joking around. He honestly didn't remember what she had run off to collect only twenty minutes earlier.

"The hairs I found right next to the victim…I send it to Greg and he just gave me the results…" Catherine said slowly and snapped her fingers to make sure he was really awake.

"What was that for?" Grissom asked and quickly flinched back. Catherine narrowed her eyes at him and just stared for a while. She knew that this thing with Sara had affected him more than he would ever admit, but she couldn't hold out more for details. Because she also knew that something else had happened on his way to their meeting with Brass a few hours earlier. And her intuition told her that he had talked with Sara once again.

"Okay either you spill it or you snap out of this vegetable state!" Catherine said and sat down in the chair next to Grissom. He looked over at her and knew he couldn't deny it much longer since she knew him better than anybody else. Even better than Sara did, but he still had a problem talking about it.

"So what news did Greg bring you?" he asked after a moment of silence and Catherine cursed herself for not convincing him to spill all the details instead. She had a way with people and especially Grissom. But this time he ignored the subject in hand and Catherine knew she had to confront Sara instead.

"Right! Well, the hair isn't human, which I hadn't hoped for…and that's the bad news" Catherine started and Grissom gave her the same puzzled look as before. A small teasing smile appeared on her face and he knew she was just messing with him for some reason. And in spite everything he didn't realize that she wanted details on what was going on with him and Sara. When the truth was quite boring really; there wasn't anything going on between the two. But Catherine had a whole different theory on the subject.

"So what's the good news? You've identified the murderer as a canine?" Grissom asked sarcastically and now Catherine looked incredible smug.

"Close. Our girl hasn't got a dog and apparently not the other victim either. Which means…" Catherine said and Grissom suddenly smiled at her when he realized what that hair meant to their case.

"So it seems that our murderer forgets to wash his clothes after playing with Fido…" Grissom said sarcastically and Catherine nodded slowly with a grin while pulling out another paper.

"And if I remember correctly one of our suspects from the previous case spend a lot of time around Fidos…take a look" she said and handed the paper over to Grissom.

"So how come these women met him…if they didn't have any dogs?" he asked and looked up again. Catherine shrugged and got out of her chair with a loud sigh.

"I honestly don't know but I think it calls for a friendly little interview between a suspect and…us" she said and walked out of the evidence room. Grissom looked down at the paper again but this time all thoughts about the case were gone. The only thing he managed to think about was the fight earlier that morning. Sara had been right; he didn't trust her enough to let her work a rape case. As much as he wanted to convince himself of that, it wasn't possible. She was too emotional on those cases and after all these years she was in the risk of a burn out. Although she would never admit it and he would never mention it.

* * *

After spending so many hours stuck inside the lab Sara was relived to be outside, breathing fresh air. Although she could make without Warrick and Nick's tasteless jokes which were starting to disturb her driving. It was only a few minutes left but Sara was getting more and more annoyed at their endless chatter. With one in the front next to her and one in the back, she was surrounded. And unlike Catherine, she almost never joined the guys' conversations or shared any jokes in times like this. But there had been days, not too long ago, when she used to joke around with them. But today she felt like killing them.

"Hey guys! Unless you want to be plastered against a pole I suggest you two keep quiet so that the driver, that would be me, doesn't do anything hasty like…oh, I don't know; crash into one of those trucks for example?" Sara asked sarcastically and hinted at the trucks driving in front of them on the highway.

"Whoa…! Somebody's a little cranky today? Hey, you were the one that insisted on driving!" Warrick said with a teasing grin and Sara shot him a deadly look.

"Yeah, well that's when I thought that you guys could be quite for like two seconds! And now I know why I haven't been paired with you guys for weeks…Grissom probably figured something like this would happen!" Sara said and Nick leaned in between the two front seats.

"So what are you saying, Sara? That you would pass up the opportunity to work with the cool guys for some rape case?" he asked with a teasing smile and Sara glanced at him over her shoulder.

"No, I'm not saying that. But come on…'the cool guys'? I think somebody in here has eaten a big bowl of confidence!" she said and Warrick couldn't help but laugh at Nick, who shot him a warning look.

"And look who's talking!" Nick said with a grin and Sara smiled. But deep down she felt like just dropping everything and go home. Being maxed out on overtime used to be her biggest problem but now it would be a blessing in disguise.

"Well we're here…and all in one piece I might add" Sara said with a perky smile as she turned off the highway and they could see the factory. It wasn't far away from the place they had found their victim and Sara had a good feeling about this suspect. Although in that person's case it would be a very bad feeling.

"I wasn't worried for a bit…!" Nick said with a shining smile as Sara parked the black SUV across the road from the factory. Some of the trucks that had been in front of them on the highway drove through the gates and Sara turned off the car engine with a sigh.

"Yeah right! Come on tough guy!" Warrick said and stepped out of the car. Nick glared at him before nearly jumping out of the SUV; eager to prove that he really was a tough guy. They didn't notice at first that Sara hadn't gotten out of the car.

"Hey girl! Are you coming?" Warrick yelled out.

Normally she would be out the car before them but obviously this wasn't her day. Nothing she had done or said wasn't as normal and she just wished the she could turn back the time. Not running late for assignments, not talking back to Grissom in front of the others, not snapping at Catherine in the locker room, not giving the guys the silent treatment at the crime scene, not yelling at Grissom in the hallway or the break room and definitely not freeze up at this very moment in the car.

"Yeah just give me a minute, okay? I'll be right there" she said with a shaky voice and forced on a smile for them. Nick didn't seem to believe one word but Warrick convinced him to leave her be for now. Even though Sara's behavior had gone from pissed off to weird, and neither of these two behaviors was common when it came to Sara Sidle. She could easily get annoyed but never really pissed off and being weird wasn't part of her personality. Even considering her work and aside from pulling double shifts more than everybody else, she was as normal as a person could be. But even if they were close friends she would never admit it to them and especially not to Grissom. Which meant they would have to take it up with the one person that could literary drag the truth out of Sara in the end.

* * *

The muffled sound of fireworks turned Catherine's attention away from the evidence and she listened with a shy smile on her lips. Soon it would officially be the 4th July and she would still be stuck inside a lab piecing together a puzzle that consisted of all the collected evidence from the previous murder case. Their suspect had turned out to have a waterproof alibi and much to Catherine's surprise Grissom didn't seem to really care. So now it felt like she was working three cases on her own with her supervisor somewhere else, probably thinking about the fight with a certain Sara Sidle.

"Hey, Cath!" Nick said as he and Warrick suddenly walked into the room. They seemed strangely cheerful considering they had been stuck with Sara for almost the whole shift. And Catherine knew just how cranky Sara could get when things didn't go her way.

"Whatever you're selling I don't want it!" Catherine said while bending over the table with her eyes focused on the evidence in front of her. Frankly she had given up on this piece of puzzle a long time ago, especially since Grissom had been a no-show, but at this moment it was the perfect excuse to be left alone. Because it didn't take a genius to figure out what Warrick and Nick wanted with her.

"What makes you think we're selling something? Can't we just hang out in the lab with our friend?" Nick asked with a pearly white smile and now Catherine looked up at him with suspicious eyes.

"Are you feeling okay, Nicky? Because we _never_ hang out in the lab! The lab is what I try to get away from the second the shift has ended…so just spit it out without kissing ass first; it doesn't suit you!" she said and glared at both guys with her arms crossed.

"We were wondering if you could talk to Sara" Warrick said and Catherine couldn't help but look surprise. Of all the things she had in mind that they would beg her to do, this wasn't one of them. She wasn't even sure that they had noticed Sara behaving different.

"Well I hate to screw up your perfect little plan, but she wasn't exactly friendly towards me this morning so I doubt she's gonna listen at all to me" Catherine said after a moment of contemplating.

"So she blew you off too?" Warrick asked with a concern look and Catherine slowly got out of her chair.

"Yeah this morning in the locker room after the fight with Grissom…wait, so she's been acting that way all day?" she asked and when both guys nodded she sighed.

"Oh yeah…! She even threatened driving into a truck or a pole if we didn't shut up in the car" Nick said and Catherine couldn't help smiling at this.  
"Well, _that_ is understandable! But I still can't believe that she's still pissed about that fight; it's not like it was a first" Catherine said and this made Nick remember the second incident in the break room.

"I don't think it's longer about the fight…there's gotta be more behind it. Sara don't just freak out over a disagreement" he said and now Catherine turned her attention towards him.

"Nick, what are you talking about?" she asked and in that moment Nick fell dead silent. The footsteps behind her made Catherine quickly turning around and facing Grissom.

"Gil! Just the man I was looking for! You know, it's not very nice leaving a damsel in distress to piece up a puzzle all by herself…!" she said with a smile and he gave her a confused look.

"Cath, you've done this a thousand times before…besides, I don't see you as a damsel in distress" Grissom said and he glanced over at Nick and Warrick.

"Well that's really nice of you, Grissom, but I could still use some extra hands on this…which is why Nick and Warrick are here" Catherine said when she noticed Grissom wasn't really paying attention to her.

"I thought they were working on that murder case with Sara?" Grissom asked and seemed even more confused. Catherine forced back a groan and turned around facing Nick and Warrick.

"Yeah but she's questioning our prime suspect with Brass so we figured Cath could use a hand" Nick said and Warrick nodded along. Catherine rolled her eyes and turned around facing Grissom again.

"Right…well I think Catherine has everything under control now, so you two better go back to the station" Grissom said and both guys were gone before he had time to say another word. He glanced at the empty doorway and then turned his attention at Catherine. She was already seated at the table again and started moving the evidence around to make it all fit. Which it didn't by a far but she knew that Grissom would ask her once again why Nick and Warrick had suddenly left the police station with their only suspect in custody. That was certainly not like them and Catherine never ignored him this much.

"What was that about?" he asked and sat down next to Catherine at the table.

"What I said it was about" Catherine said without even glancing at him, hoping that he would drop it.

"How could they know that you needed help if they were over at the station?" Grissom asked.

"Maybe because I called them since you never showed up" Catherine said still with her eyes on the table. The evidence in front of her meant nothing anymore and all she could think of was the next white lie.

"And they just dropped everything to help you?" Grissom asked while trying to establish eye contact. But Catherine kept her stare firmly at the evidence.

"Well it didn't seem to me that they were needed over there anyway. Sara apparently has got everything under control…makes you wonder, doesn't it?" she asked and now she had Grissom's undivided attention.

"About what?" he asked and Catherine lifted up her head from the evidence and looked at him.

"About whether you made the right decision or not" she said in a soft tone of voice.

* * *

**TBC... **


	3. Chapter 3

Sara walked out of the interrogation room with a cocky smile. It hadn't taken long before their suspect broken down and told them everything. Even pointless details that had nothing to do with the case. It ended with Brass telling the guy to shut up and Sara could finally get out of the room.

"Hey! How did it go?" Nick suddenly asked and Sara spun around facing him and Warrick. Her smile grew bigger and Nick was more then pleased to see that she wasn't angry anymore. At least it didn't show.

"Too bad you guys left; you would have enjoyed the show very much. I didn't even present all the evidence before he broke down and spilled his guts!" Sara said with a grin and Nick laughed.

"Really? Well, I'm sure I can get rerun if I ask nicely…" Warrick said and Sara gave him a teasing look.

"I doubt that the guy is up for a second round" she said while clinging to her papers.

"And you?" Nick asked and Sara gave him a puzzled look.

"What do you mean?" she asked and Warrick glanced at Nick, desperately hoping that he hadn't just ruined everything. Sara was finally somewhat cheerful again and it was best to leave it at that for now. At least until Catherine was going to have a woman-to-woman talk later on.

"I was just wondering if you are ready to go back to the lab" Nick said with a shrug. Sara glanced at Warrick before looking back at Nick again.

"Why wouldn't I be? Wait…is this because of what I said in the car?" she asked.

"Well it's just that…you haven't exactly been yourself today" Nick said and Sara froze.

"Yeah I guess you're right. I'm sorry" she said with an apologetic smile at Warrick and Nick.

"So everything's okay?" Warrick asked and Sara nodded slowly, now with a forced smile.

"Yeah everything's okay…just having a bad day I guess" she said and Nick put his arm around her shoulders with a big grin.

"Then it's a good thing the shift is almost over! That way we can take you out and make the ending at least good enough to remember!" he said and Sara smiled at him. All three walked down the hallway together and once again Sara's thoughts returned to that fight with Grissom. In spite everything she couldn't stop thinking about him and by now it was driving her crazy. She had to take her minds of things work related and that was exactly what he was; work related. Nothing more than that.

* * *

Back at the lab, Nick and Warrick walked into the break room while Sara continued down towards the locker room. She hadn't for once turned down their offer to take her out since today she desperately wanted to get away. Things were just too messy and she dreaded returning in a few hours.

"Rough day?" Catherine asked suddenly as she appeared in the doorway with crossed arms.

"You could say that" Sara said while opening up her locker, avoiding looking at Catherine.

"Listen, Sara…I don't know what happened earlier and I'm not trying to get any details here, but there is something I do want an honest answer to" Catherine said as she walked up to Sara.

"Well that depends on what it is" Sara said and turned to look at Catherine.

"Are you okay? I mean, not just today because it doesn't seem to have been one of your better days…but is everything okay in general?" Catherine blurted out and Sara froze up. She didn't know how to answer that question since she wasn't comfortable with telling the truth or coming up with a lie. Catherine wasn't really a close friend in spite all the years they've worked together, but Sara couldn't imagine lying her right in the face just like that.

"Hey guys! Grissom needs you both in the break room…_now_" Nick said as he showed up in the doorway and Sara quickly snapped out of her daze.

"What? But the shift is over…what's so important?" she asked, not being able to disguise her confusion.

"Looks like we're gonna pull a double" Nick said with a shrug and disappeared again. Catherine let out a sigh before turning around and walking towards the door. Sara felt like hitting something or somebody but knew it would only draw unwanted attention to her. And it seemed as though the others were already watching her carefully; waiting for some kind of breakdown.

"You coming?" Catherine suddenly asked and Sara closed her locker.

"Yeah! Right behind you…" Sara said and walked out of the room a few steps behind Catherine. Walking through the hallway towards the break room made Sara even more uncomfortable than earlier. Catherine stepped into the break room and took a seat next to Grissom at the table. Sara managed to repress a sigh of relief as she slowly walked around the table, finally sitting down at the other end next to Nick. She firmly avoided looking at Grissom while waiting for an explanation.

"I called you all in here because the murder case Catherine and I worked on just got a whole lot harder to solve. It seems that the murderer found another victim and now it's time for everybody to dig in. Which I'm afraid calls for a double shift" Grissom said while passing out papers. Sara lifted her head and found herself just staring at him. But she quickly broke off eye contact when his eyes met hers.

"Okay, so we'll split up in teams. Warrick and Nick, you two help Catherine with going through the evidence again…" Grissom started and Catherine shot both guys a teasing smile across the table. She knew that Grissom hadn't bought their lie earlier and this was the proof.

"Sara, you're with me. We're gonna head out to the crime scene" Grissom finished and the others were slowly clearing out of the break room. Sara lingered in her chair while contemplating Grissom's sudden decision. She wanted to believe that he had done it because he trusted her, but a part of her knew he just wanted to clear the air between them, and that made her annoyed.

"Sara?" Grissom suddenly asked as he appeared in the doorway.

"Yeah I'm coming" Sara said and got out of the chair. As they walked down the hallway she could hear him right behind her, and she wondered if maybe she should just come right out and apologize.

When they got out to the car she suddenly stopped, took a quick breath and turned around facing him. For the first time in hours she wasn't avoiding his stare or being so near him. She knew deep down that she hadn't been acting professionally and in that way showed him that he had made the right call from the beginning, not letting her working the rape-case.

"Look, about what happened earlier…I shouldn't have acted like that and you were probably right. I guess my emotions got the better the end of me" she said. Apologizing to somebody wasn't one of Sara Sidle's many gifts and she doubted that Grissom would actually believe that she was being sincere.

"Well…it's always nice to hear my judgment getting questioned. But I guess we were both wrong" Grissom said after moments of silence. Sara stared at him, then turned around again and walked over to the SUV.

* * *

"Couple of kids found her while lighting some fireworks" Brass said while walking with Grissom and Sara towards a ditch. Police and coroner surrounded the dead body and Sara realized she had to shut down all emotions. Proving that she was capable of working cases such as this without having Grissom giving her any separate treatment. As they made their way up to the body Grissom couldn't help but glance at her and hoped for both their sakes that she could handle it. Sara put down her kit and kneeled down besides the body, staring at her for a moment. The face was almost covered in blood and the blonde tangled hair had blood spatter on it. The clothes were ripped apart as expected and both shoes were missing. Sara's eyes wandered up to the wrists that had red marks after some kind of rope.

"Liver temperate estimates the time of death approximately five hours ago" the coroner suddenly said and Sara glanced up at him.

"Well I think it's safe to say that the murder were committed here…she hasn't been moved" she said and took out the camera. She started taking pictures from all the needed angles, very well knowing that Grissom were watching her.

"So what makes you sure that this is the same guy?" Brass asked.

"It's the same M.O and the time between the victims are consisted. Only this time it seems that things didn't go according to plan" Grissom said while putting on his gloves and kneeling down by the woman's head. He pushed the hair back and discovered an open wound at the temple. It seemed to have been bleeding quite badly but he couldn't imagine all of it covering her face. He grabbed a swap from his kit with a puzzled look. Sara was finally through with the pictures and walked up to him, staring down at the body with a pained expression. She was doing her best but this was almost too much. Before Grissom could make eye contact she walked away over to her kit.

"All of this blood can't possibly come from one single open wound. If we're lucky, the autopsy will reveal more to us" Grissom said.

"So if the gunshot to the temple was just a statement, then that means this one was special. The others didn't have this severe head traumas" Sara said while putting down the camera.

"I didn't know you paid so close attention to this case…?" he asked and Sara couldn't help but smile.

"I pay attention to every case; some more than others" she said and stood up.

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" Grissom said with a shy smile. Sara returned the smile and bent down next to him, taking a closer look at the marks on the wrists.

"Were any of the other victims tied up?" she asked and took out her flashlight.

"No. He had the element of surprise to his advantage" Grissom said as he leaned in closer. Sara turned on her flashlight and directed it at the shallow flesh wounds.

"The rope had to been either very thick or…" she suddenly trailed off and tilted her head. She reached for her kit and quickly took out a tweezer.

"What did you found?" Grissom asked and Sara directed light at one of the wrists. She narrowed her eyes as she lifted the small white fabric off the body.

"A clue" she said and Grissom quickly took out a small evidence bag for the fabric.

"Doesn't look like the guy thought the thing through very much" Grissom commented.

"Which is a very good thing…or he would walk" Sara said and Grissom glanced at her.

* * *

Later in autopsy Grissom realized that Sara had so far been very professional. She had done an excellent work at the crime scene as usual, but Grissom had a strong feeling that the case was affecting her more than she allowed expressing in any way. Which was never good for anybody.

"So what killed her?" Grissom asked after finally taking his eyes off Sara. She for once didn't notice his gaze on her; instead she focused on the body.

"Well not from the temple wound. Her X-rays revealed some recent fractures at the back of the head. Caused from repeating beating; most likely with a heavy object" Dr. Robbins said and pointed at the open wound at the back of the head.

"A stone perhaps" Sara said while taking a closer look at the wound. The shape consisted with a stone and the murderer had probably used plenty of force.

"There were some serious beating before the final blow, none of which she was conscious for. Her airways show that he strangled her, causing her to faint, before moving on. Aside from the severe beating, this looks to be the same murderer. Tortured, raped and then killed" Dr. Robbins said.

"Well, the others didn't have these marks on them" Sara said while pointing at the wrists.

"No they didn't and they didn't have the same severe damages she has" Dr. Robbins said and Sara finally took her eyes off the body.

"Well if we're done here I think I'm gonna go and check on the evidence" she said with a glance at Grissom before walking out of the autopsy room.

* * *

"Hey! How did it go down in autopsy?" Catherine shouted as Sara stepped into the break room.

"She died from blunt head force trauma…same as the others. Nothing of help there, but I did however find fabric on her wrists. Possibly from the rope he used to tie her up with" Sara said while sitting down in a chair across from Catherine. She put her feet up and let out a sigh.

"Well, Warrick and Nick are checking out the last piece of evidence from the previous victim. But it doesn't seem to be much more of help there either. If we have any lucky at all, the guy left more clues behind this time" Catherine said and gave Sara a sympathetic look.

"What?" Sara asked when she realized Catherine was staring at her.

"It's just that…well, I just hope you don't get too much involved" Catherine said in a soft tone of voice.

"There's nothing to worry about, Catherine. I'm fine" Sara said while avoiding Catherine's gaze.

"Well that's good. Because I would hate to see you throw it all away over this one case" Catherine said and Sara were just about to get defensive, when Nick walked into the room.

"Oh man! That so-called evidence isn't much of help! Every piece links back to the victim but not to the murderer. Except for the dog hairs you found, Cath" he said as he poured up some coffee.

"Yeah well that's not gonna get us the murderer unless we have something to compare it to. Which we don't" Catherine said while leaning back in her chair again.

"Where did you find the hairs?" Sara suddenly asked.

"Uhm…on Susan Carlton's body" Catherine said while rubbing her temples.

"And she didn't have a dog?" Sara asked and Catherine slowly shook her head.

"No, neither of the victims had dogs but the murderer probably has or at least works around dogs. But we still don't have a clue where to look!" she said grumpily.

"If Susan Carlton didn't own any dog, how come hair ended up on her dead body? And I was just on my way to check out the evidence collected from Jane Doe…what are the odds that dog hair might turn up there as well?" Sara asked with a devious smile and Nick chuckled into his coffee mug. Catherine glanced over at Sara and a smile spread across her face.

"Well if there's traces of dog hairs there, I think its time to visit the same kennel again" she said and Sara nodded before getting out of her chair. She quickly exited the room and Catherine turned to Nick.

"Looks like a certain CSI is back on track" she said with a grin and in that moment Grissom appeared in the doorway. Catherine cleared her throat and quickly got out of her chair.

"Hey! I was just about to help Warrick out with the evidence puzzle; which isn't coming along very well. But I think that our latest girl might have the final answers" she said.

"I am listening" Grissom said and didn't step away from the doorframe.

"Well I think it's better if Sara explains it; she's the one processing the evidence and actually pointed out a way to connect at least two of the victims" Catherine said while glancing at Nick.

"Through the dog hairs?" Grissom asked and Catherine slowly nodded.

"Yeah. The murderer probably works at a kennel. And given that I'm a regular at one already, we thought we should start our searching there" she explained and Grissom seemed to be contemplating this theory.

"Keep working with the evidence from the two previous crime scenes; see if you can find anything else in common. I'm gonna go and see what we recovered from the third crime scene" Grissom said after a moment and walked down the hallway, towards the evidence room where Sara was.

"Great…just what I need; more time in a lab! I've been working there almost the entire shift and got nothing to show for it!" Catherine said with a loud groan before walking out of the room.

* * *

Sara spread out the bloody clothes on the table and grabbed a magnifying glass. She ran it slowly over the sweater, finding plenty of dirt and blood. But so far not one single strand of hair. Human or canine.

"Find anything?" Grissom suddenly asked and Sara glanced up at him.

"Just regular dirt and blood…that is probably the victim's. But I'm gonna send some over to Greg just in case it's not" she said and continued to run the magnifying glass across the sweater. The silence was almost unbearable for her and she knew that Grissom had something to say, but he was known for taking his time. Rushing things was certainly not in his vocabulary.

"Catherine mentioned something about connecting two of the victims. So if you find dog hair here as well, does that lead us any closer to the murderer?" Grissom asked finally and Sara suddenly froze. She slowly leaned in over the sweater and moved the magnifying glass closer.

"Hand me the tweezer, will you? I think I just found the connection" she said without taking her eyes off the sweater. Grissom gave her the tweezer and she carefully lifted up one of the hairs. She held up the magnifying glass in front of it and a satisfied smile spread across her face.

"Looks to be the same kind of dog hairs found at the second crime scene. With any luck they are all from the same breed" Grissom said as he looked at the hair through the magnifying glass.

"Or the same dog. Employees at kennels usually owns a dog so it doesn't necessary need to be a dog from the kennel" Sara said and glanced at Grissom over her shoulder with a smile. She then bagged the hair and leaned in over the sweater again.

"Right…well since you got everything under control here, I'm gonna go and check how things are working out for Catherine. Keep me posted about the DNA results" Grissom said as he slowly moved towards the doorway. Sara took a sample of the blood on the sweater and looked up at him.

"Don't I always?" she asked and Grissom slowly broke of the eye contact as he walked out of the room. Sara sighed and put away the swab before picking up the magnifying glass again. She still had to process the clothes and then it was time for the other evidence. Which sadly only contained the piece of fabric that she had found on the victim's wrist. Any other personal belongings were not found anywhere at the crime scene and because of the shape the body was in, Dr. Robbins hadn't been able to ID the victim yet. Until then they could only rely on the evidence, which wasn't speaking on the victim's behalf this time.

"Got anything for me?" Greg suddenly asked and Sara put back the sweater into the evidence bag.

"Slow day, Greg?" she asked and Greg shrugged before walking up to her. He looked down at the ripped jeans and glanced up at her.

"Is this the latest victim's clothes?" he asked with a concerned look and Sara nodded slowly.

"Yeah. Hey, I took some blood from the sweater for you to analyze. Also…" she said and turned around to grab the other evidence for Greg.

"Ah, the famous dog hair. I have enough to make a comparison on that but I'm gonna need a blood sample from the victim" Greg said as he took the evidence Sara handed over.

"Yeah I know. As soon as I'm done here I'm going down to autopsy and take a sample. Just page me when you got some news on the hair, okay?" Sara asked and Greg nodded with a smile before disappearing out the door. Sara picked up an UV-flashlight with a pained expression and turned off the lights. A magnifying glass wouldn't detect evidence such as semen and since this was pants, there was a big chance that it would be traces of body fluids. As the room turned dark she walked back up to the table and put on a pair of glasses, then turned on the flashlight.

"Hey" Nick said as he suddenly walked up to her. Sara glanced up at him before turning her attention back at the pants. The blue UV light swept across the filthy jeans and they seemed spotless. For a moment Sara thought that she wasn't going to find anything on them. But then she noticed the small traces of semen and couldn't hold back a triumphed smile.

"Looks like the murderer finally left a piece of himself behind" Nick said with a grin as he bend down next to Sara. She looked at him with the same smile and could hardly believe it. Going from having no evidence leading them to the murderer they now had his DNA on the last victim's clothes. Suddenly this man didn't seem too smart after all.

* * *

**TBC...**


	4. Chapter 4

She looked up and found Greg staring back at her with a big grin. Sara gave him a pleased smile and jacked the paper out of his hands.

"Time to let the dogs out. Thanks, Greg!" she said and winked at him before nearly running out of the lab. As she was on her way down the hallway, she nearly bumped into Grissom and quickly handed over the paper to him. He gave her a curious look before glancing down at the results. Sara knew he wanted to ask her about the thing down in autopsy earlier, but she hoped to work around that.

"German Shepard?" he asked and Sara nodded silently with an awkward look. She still wasn't sure if she herself should mention anything about earlier before he did. Because she knew he would eventually.

"I figured it might be one at the kennel and if so…we have enough to take a sample for comparison" she said and Grissom glanced up at her.

"Well, we follow the evidence and right now it's telling us to visit the kennel. But have you thought about what to do if there's no such dog there?" he asked when Sara flashed an exciting smile. He didn't want to get her hopes up too high if the kennel turned out to be a false alarm.

"I was just going to call Brass and ask him to pull out the papers on Lily Thomas. She might have had some more contact with dogs than the others" Sara said and she could tell that Grissom was somewhat skeptic of the whole thing.

"Well, Brass also needs to speak with Lily Thomas' family so I suggest that the three of us head down to the kennel. After getting the papers of course" he said while contemplating Sara's theory. She gave him a puzzled look and he snapped out of his thoughts.

"Three? Who's the third person?" she asked and right on cue Catherine came walking down the hallway behind Grissom. She had a grin plastered all over her face and Sara looked even more puzzled.

"What's with you?" Grissom asked with a confused look and Catherine waved around a result paper.

"Thought you might wanna take a peek at this. It's the result of the blood sample Sara got from Lily Thomas. And before you ask; it's not hers" she said and Sara gave her a shocked look as Catherine handed over the paper to Grissom. Sara walked over to Grissom and looked down at the result paper, then looked back up at Catherine.

"Is this accurate? Unknown donor?" she asked and Catherine nodded before letting out a sigh.

"Which means it could be the murderers blood and we have nothing to compare it to" Grissom said and looked up at Catherine. Suddenly a smile spread across Sara's face as she remembered the evidence collected from Lily Thomas' pants.

"You know that's not completely true…we do have something to compare it to" she said, causing both Catherine and Grissom to turn and stare at her with confusing expressions.

"We do? Like what?" Catherine asked and Grissom just stared at Sara.

"I collected semen from Lily Thomas' clothes and send it over to Greg right before getting the blood sample" Sara explained and Catherine's grin was now impossible to remove. Grissom was busy wondering why Sara hadn't shared this important piece of information with him sooner. He was still her supervisor, no matter what had occurred between them during the previous shift.

"Well then we better go and check it out!" Catherine said suddenly and Grissom was snapped out of his thoughts once again. Sara smiled at Catherine and glanced at Grissom, knowing very well what he was thinking. She had honestly forgot to tell him about the evidence and made a mental note to explain that to him later. Once nobody else were around to make her feel more uncomfortable.

* * *

After a few minutes all five CSIs were surrounding Greg inside the DNA lab. They were leaning up against his desk and staring at him, eagerly waiting for the results on the comparison. Greg kept his eyes firmly on the machine in front of him; trying to ignore the eyes staring back at him. If the results turned out not to be a match, he wasn't sure what to expect from them. So therefore he kept quiet and told no jokes this time. Which didn't seem to bother anyone but himself.

"Why is this taking so long, Greg?" Sara asked and broke the tense silence in the lab. Greg sighed and glanced up at her before hinting at the humming machine.

"Same reason as the two previous times you asked; the machine. I can't make it go any faster" he said and Sara barely held back a groan. She felt Grissoms' eyes on her but pretended not to notice anything.

"So…if this matches up, we got our killer?" Nick asked and everybody except Sara turned to look at Grissom. Just as he was about to give his answer, the machine beeped and stopped humming. Everybody's attention turned away from Grissom and Greg took a deep breath while waiting for the paper to be printed out. Sara felt a cold lump inside her chest as the paper slowly came out of the printer connected to the machine. She was excited and yet terrified at the same time. After what felt like forever, Greg grabbed the paper and looked down the results. It was now dead silent in the lab and Sara felt like she was going to explode any second.

"Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner" Greg said suddenly and for a moment they were all quiet. He passed the paper around and Sara grasped it with unsteady hands. She looked down at the results and could hardly believe what she was reading. The lump was slowly disappearing but she still didn't dare to catch her breath quite yet.

"I'll go and call Brass about the results. Looks like we're going down to the kennel sooner than expected" Catherine suddenly said and quickly walked out of the lab. Sara kept staring at the results and for a moment didn't notice the others eyes on her.

"Right…well, I'll go and help Catherine" she said and handed the paper back to Greg before leaving the lab. Grissom sighed and disappeared out of the lab after her.

"Sara!" he called out and Sara froze immediately. As she heard him getting closer she turned around with a tense expression.

"Yeah?" she asked and looked Grissom steady in the eyes. He had the concerned look on his face but also seemed puzzled. As if he could figure out her problem if he could just stare at her long enough.

"Are you going to be able to stay objective during this?" Grissom asked after a moment of silence and Sara went through several answers inside her head. She wasn't going to tell him that this case bothered her but she knew that Grissom was the one person who couldn't be fooled. Not when it came to working a case, but in other areas he wasn't equally observant.

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked, her voice nearly trembling. She felt like hitting herself for such a lame response. Grissom could see right through her by now probably and that lump slowly came back again. When he didn't say anything, Sara looked away for a moment and then turned around. She continued walking down the hallway, hoping that her legs would carry her all the way to the locker room.

* * *

"Brass is meeting us there with two Uniforms and one warrant" Catherine said with a smile as she walked up Grissom, Nick and Warrick outside on the parking lot. She put away her phone and patted Grissom on the shoulder as she swept past him.

"Hey, Cath, have you' seen Sara?" he suddenly asked and Catherine slowly turned with a confused look.

"No…I thought she was with you guys" she said and Grissom glanced over at Nick and Warrick.

"Catherine, you and Warrick go down to the kennel and meet Brass there. Nick, you wait here; I'll be back shortly" Grissom said and Nick nodded. Catherine jumped into the Tahoe and made the sign for Warrick to follow her example. He patted Nick on the shoulder before walking over the to the car.

Grissom sighed and walked in through the main entrance. As he moved through the hallway he tried to think of what to say. There was no need go ransacking for her through the labs; he already knew where she was hiding out. He suddenly stopped a few feet away from the locker room. From the distance he could tell someone was sitting there on the bench in the dark and he knew straight away who it was.

"Sara? Are you coming?" he asked as he stepped into the room. Sara lifted up her head and quickly wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes. She didn't dare to speak at first, knowing her voice would tremble. Grissom walked over the bench with a concerned look and slowly sat down next to her. Just having him so close, staring at her, was almost too much at this point. Today of all days he would actually pay this much attention to her; on the worse day of the week.

"Did we manage to get a warrant?" she asked while turning her head the other way, blinking away the still remaining tears. Grissom knew exactly what she was doing and decided for once to hear the whole truth.

"Sara, is there anything you wanna talk to me about? This case has clearly gotten to you more than you're admitting and as your supervisor I need to know what it is since it's affecting your job" Grissom said and Sara sighed before slowly turning around. Her eyes were wet but the look was as steady as ever before.

"I'm just having a bad day…or more like a bad week actually, but it's okay. I guess I needed a time-out from everything" she said and Grissom stared at her. He certainly didn't believe one word of it but couldn't seem to get past that brick wall that surrounded her. It had always been there but now it was stronger than before. And not even he could break it down.

"Ever since you started working the case, I've seen you go from bad to worse. The reason I didn't mention it was because I hoped that you could handle it; that you would leave your emotions at the door and not bring them onto a crime scene again. Considering what's happened in the past I don't think it's wise for you to work these cases. And it was wrong of me to let you work _this_ case" Grissom said after a while and Sara's heart skipped a beat. She knew all too well what was to come next; vacation or suspension. Frankly at this point she was too tired to really care.

"So what are you saying, Grissom? That I'm off the case because I actually feel for these victims?" she asked, feeling the anger building up inside. The same feeling that had occurred several hours earlier in the break room. Moments before the fight and before the whole day went from bad to worse; not just her.

"Sara, you know very well that emotions only complicates an investigation. We need to stay objective and let the evidence guide us and not our hearts" Grissom said and Sara sat frozen, not knowing what to say.

"Yes, I do know that, Grissom. Unless you haven't noticed I'm not a rookie" she said after a while, forcing herself to remain calm.

"It's just that I don't want you to get in over your head; that won't do anybody any good. But you're not off the case, although I will be keeping my eyes on you from here on. If everything works out okay then I don't see why you shouldn't be able to work other similar cases in the future" Grissom finally said and Sara gave him a shocked look. This was what she wanted but wasn't keen on Grissom watching her every move. She had done her job almost flawlessly over the years and now it had come to this?

"So you'll be babysitting me for the rest of this case? And possibly cases like this in the future?" she asked, knowing that deep down she should be grateful. But that feeling of not being trusted was stronger.

"I didn't say that. I will merely keep an eye on you when possible; for both our sakes. Technically I should take you off the case but I trust that you'll do the right thing. Besides, you _have_ been professional so far…I just hope it stays that way" Grissom said. Sara took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"We should probably get going…Catherine got the warrant, right?" she suddenly asked and broke off the awkward silence. Grissom looked puzzled for a moment and then nodded. He had almost forgot that Nick was still waiting outside and by now Catherine and Warrick was probably already at the kennel.

"Right. Wouldn't wanna keep Nick waiting any longer" he said and slowly walked towards the doorway. Sara took another deep breath and glanced over her shoulder before walking out of the room. This was one of those moments that wouldn't be forgotten easily. Grissom would now be 'keeping an eye' on her which couldn't be a good thing. Especially not considering that the past didn't seem to be put behind her even though she tried so hard.

* * *

Catherine started chewing more intensely on the gum and looked down at her watch for the fifth time.

"Would you stop doing that? They'll be here any minute; Grissom is never late and we still got a few minutes to spare" Warrick said with a loud sigh and Catherine glanced over at him. They were sitting in their Tahoe outside the kennel, waiting for backup. Brass and his police officers hadn't arrived either and it really wasn't like Grissom taking this long.

"I'm sorry but who knows if our guy is still in there? Probably bailed out the backdoor when he saw the suspicious SUV parked outside" she said and Warrick chuckled.

"You really gotta learn to relax, Cath! We're not gonna blow this" he said and Catherine smiled him while sinking down in the car seat. She pulled her hands through the honey blonde hair and couldn't help but glance at her watch once again.

"God! Where are they?" she burst out and Warrick raised an eyebrow, looking down at her. Then on cue, two very familiar cars came rolling down the street behind them. Warrick looked over to the rear view mirror and then glanced over at Catherine with a grin.

"Showtime!" he said and Catherine got out of the car as soon as she heard the car engines.

"What took you guys so long?" she asked while walking up towards the other Tahoe. Grissom shut the car door and gave her an apologetic glance as he bend down to pick up his kit.

"Sorry about that" he said with a shrug and Sara got out of the car with her kit in hand.

"So I'm guessing you never exited the car?" Brass asked as he walked up next to Catherine with two police officers behind him. Catherine sighed and rolled eyes.

"Do I look like an idiot?" she snapped and Grissom put a calming hand on her tense shoulder.

"Alright then…shall we?" Brass asked and started walking towards the kennel with the police offers at his side. Further in the back, Sara was in deep thoughts. She wasn't sure that her behavior had proved how grateful she actually was. Despite the feeling of disappointment she was so glad for not being thrown off the case, considering the circumstances. Although Grissom probably didn't see it that way.

"Hey…are you okay?" Nick suddenly asked and Sara quickly looked up at him, realizing they were just about to enter the dog kennel. She cleared her throat and put on a weak smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Just need some sleep I guess" she said and Nick returned the smile, even though he knew she was lying through her teeth.

"Well that's the charm about double shifts; no time for sleep!" he said and Sara noticed how Grissom glanced back at her before walking in through the entrance door. She held back a groan and stepped inside with Nick right behind her. The smell of canine hit her like a wall and the sound of loud barking almost blocked out her own thoughts.

Brass walked up to the reception with the police officers and flashed his badge before flashing the warrant. While the secretary was contacting the manager, Grissom looked around the place.

"Looks like Brass still got some charm left" Catherine said and pointed the reception. All eyes turned to the desk where a tall, middle-age man was now standing right next to the secretary. He was talking to Brass and didn't look very corporative.

"I'm guessing he isn't too comfortable giving out information about his employees…or himself for that matter" Grissom said with a glance at the man.

"You think the manager has something to do with it?" Nick asked and Sara couldn't help but glance over at Grissom, eagerly awaiting his answer. She had wanted to ask that exact question, but felt that during the circumstances it was best to keep quiet. Things were tense enough and pulling a double didn't improve the situation. She truly was tired by now and was almost starting to forget how it felt to sleep in her own bed. Snuggling down between the comfortable sheets and just sleep for eight or even nine hours; now that was something she hadn't done for a very long time.

"I'm not thinking anything at this point. We just got here and are going to search for a German Shepard before focusing on the humans" Grissom said after a while and looked around at the photographs on the wall. Pictures of dogs that had been in the kennel before getting a new home somewhere else with a family. Suddenly Grissom froze as his eyes caught the attention of one picture in the center row. He couldn't help but lean in closer and stare at it, not knowing what to say.

"Grissom?" Catherine asked with a puzzled look and walked up to him.

"Does she look familiar to you?" Grissom asked, pointing at the picture without taking his eyes off of it. Catherine gave him a confused look and then leaned in closer towards the picture hanging on the wall. Just like Grissom, she froze immediately. The girl in the picture was Susan Carlton; victim number one.

* * *

Brass glanced over at Grissom and then turned his attention back to the employees. They were all nicely lined up in front of them, willing to help in the investigation. When Grissom announced that they were going to take DNA samples from everyone, none had refused one bit. But that didn't have to mean that the murderer wasn't among them.

"You might as well ask the manager to join in; we're not ruling him out just yet" Grissom said and Brass nodded, slowly walking over to the reception desk again. In the mean time, Nick and Warrick had the reluctant pleasure to swap the employees mouths for DNA samples. Something that they had expressed to Grissom earlier, but he had smoothly played dumb and handed them the swaps with a devious smile.

"Man, we should have had a poll like I suggested! Now why couldn't Sara and Cath do this?" Nick asked and Warrick chuckled as they took out new swaps and moved down the line.

"No use moaning about it; Grissom's orders remember? I bet Sara and Cath has their hands full with the dogs out back" Warrick said and Nick glanced at him with a grin.

"Oh you are _so_ right! Thanks for reminding me!" he said and moved onto the next employee. In the background Grissom were looking at the framed pictures on the wall again. He slowly lifted the picture of Susan Carlton and admired it more up close. She was in a park of some sort, smiling and laughing with what looked like to be her family. In front of them was a small dog sitting down and looking content, while a little girl was cuddling with it.

"Excuse me, but what are you doing with that?" the manager suddenly asked and Grissom looked up.

"Have you seen this woman before?" he asked and pointed at Susan Carlton in the picture, while smoothly changing the subject. The manager looked down at the picture and then shook his head slowly.

"No, doesn't ring a bell…why?" the manager asked and Grissom glanced over at Brass.

"Well, do you recognize the dog then, Mr…?" Grissom asked with a polite smile.

"Campbell. And I do actually recognize this dog; it's Shelley" Mr. Campbell said and smiled. Grissom and Brass exchanged looks before Grissom turned his attention back towards Mr. Campbell.

"Shelley? And how might you know Shelley?" he asked, hiding an amusing smile.

"She was brought in here by her first owner little over a year ago; apparently had a bad temper. But everybody around here loved Shelley and it became clear that the previous owner wasn't ready to take care of a dog. But luckily the Carlton's were" Mr. Campbell said and smiled even more when apparently remembering something. Grissom and Brass looked at each other, knowing very well that they had just connected Susan Carlton to the dog kennel.

"And when did you first meet the Carlton's?" Grissom asked, eager to find out more now that they were headed in the right direction for once.

"I think…about ten months ago. It was a birthday gift for their twelve-year old daughter and since they had had dogs before, it was the perfect family for Shelley" Mr. Campbell said and Grissom looked down at the picture again. Susan Carlton was in the back, not easy to spot at first sight, and the little girl in front did hold some resemblance to her.

"Was it just the parents in here? Never the little girl or her?" Grissom asked and pointed out Susan Carlton for the second time. Mr. Campbell shook his head more determinate this time.

"Look, what's so special about that woman?" he asked and Grissom exchanged looks with Brass.

"She's been murdered. And we think that someone from this kennel might know something about it" Brass said and Mr. Campbell gave him a shocked look.

"Someone like my employees? Or…me?" he asked and Brass simply shrugged, not wanting to reveal too much. Grissom glanced over at the line of suspects and then back at Mr. Campbell.

"Mr. Campbell, where do you keep your employment papers?" he asked suddenly.

"In my office…why? You seriously think one of my guys did it?" Mr. Campbell asked and Grissom shrugged. Nick and Warrick put away the swaps as they were done. They turned and walked over to Grissom and Brass.

"I don't know. But it would be a great deal of help if we had access to those papers" Grissom and Mr. Campbell nodded along.

"Sure thing. I'll go and get them for you" he said and started walking towards the reception.

"I'll be right back" Brass said with a sigh before following Mr. Campbell. Grissom watched them for a moment before turning to face Nick and Warrick.

"I want you two to take the swaps over the lab and beep me with the results ASAP" he said and both guys nodded at him. They picked up their kits and were out the door within seconds. Just as Grissom were about to take the picture out of the frame, Catherine stepped inside again.

"Hey, Gil, you might wanna take a look at this!" she said, sounding very excited and didn't wait for Grissom before she popped back out. Grissom put aside the picture frame and walked after her with a curious look on his face. He followed Catherine down to one of the last cages and as he got closer, he noticed Sara sitting down on her knees staring at something in the cage.

"What did you find?" Grissom asked and looked from Catherine down on Sara. She stood up and barely looked at him, pointing into the cage.

"Say hello to Wilson" she said and Grissom took a step closer to her. He bent down to take a look inside the cage and a German Shepard jumped up against the door and started barking flashing its sharp teeth. Grissom quickly stepped away from the cage and Catherine looked at him with a big grin.

"Didn't see that one coming, huh?" she asked and Grissom gave her a shocked look while catching his breath. Sara couldn't help but smile at him and looked down at the German Shepard.

"According to this, Wilson was turned in to the dog kennel a few weeks ago. He had attacked the owner's wife and before that, the mailman several times. Problems with his temper apparently" Catherine said, reading through the dog's files. Grissom looked down at the dog and then glanced over at Sara.

"Well, there's no question about that. And after going through all these cages, we've only found one German Shepard…and that is Wilson" Sara said and looked up at Grissom.

"And the hair recovered was German Shepard…which means we need a sample from Wilson" Grissom said, looking over at Sara. Catherine turned the pages in the file and froze.

"I think we just narrowed down our list of suspects; it says here that the only person able to handle Wilson is a Mr. Campbell" Catherine said and looked up at Grissom.

* * *

**TBC...**


	5. Chapter 5

"So how come Wilson isn't trying to tear you apart every time you get close to his cage?" Brass asked as he sat down across the desk from Mr. Campbell. Grissom, Sara and Catherine were all standing by the door and waiting eagerly for an answer. Even if he might not be the murderer, he could still help them get a hair simple from Wilson.

"Could be because I used to have a German Shepard when I was a kid, and believe it or not but Wilson reminds me of him. He was also very aggressive and people actually thought that he had attacked strangers several times" Mr. Campbell explained and took out a picture from his desk drawer.

"And you're saying that both he and Wilson are angels in disguises?" Brass asked sarcastically while glancing down at the old photograph of the German Shepard.

"Yeah, pretty much. Look, what does Wilson has to do with anything? I thought you guys were investigating the murder of Susan Carlton?" Mr. Campbell asked and Grissom glanced over at Sara who was standing on the other side of Catherine.

"We are. It just also happens that we're also looking for a German Shepard" Brass said and Mr. Campbell looked over at Grissom with a confused expression on his face.

"Mr. Campbell, it appears that hairs from a German Shepard were found at the crime scenes and we just want to exclude Wilson by getting a hair sample from him" Grissom explained and Mr. Campbell seemed to be contemplating his suggestion for a moment or two.

"I don't see why that would be a problem. Anything to help you in your investigation; right this way" Mr. Campbell said with a polite smile as he walked out of his office. Grissom, Catherine and Sara quickly followed him out to the dog cages. The dogs were barking extra loud this time, probably because they recognized Mr. Campbell, but Sara didn't hear any of it. All she could think about was to catch this serial killer before he could strike again. The muffled sound of barking brought back short flashbacks and Sara quickly snapped out of her thoughts.

"Are you sure you don't need some sort of protection?" Catherine suddenly asked and Sara stopped abruptly, finding Mr. Campbell slowly opening the cage. Wilson stopped almost instantly barking when he noticed Mr. Campbell outside and started squealing.

"Trust me; I don't!" Mr. Campbell said with a bright smile and bend into the cage, pulling a few hairs without Wilson even noticing in all the excitement.

"Here you go!" Mr. Campbell said cheerfully as he slowly closed the small cage door and stood back up. Catherine quickly pulled out an evidence bag and Mr. Campbell dropped the hairs into it.

"Thanks. Uhm…we're still going to have to take the employment papers with us" Catherine said with an apologetic smile and Mr. Campbell nodded along.

"No problem" he said, still with a bright smile on his face as he started walking back. Catherine and Sara exchanged looks behind his back, both feeling that he was a little too corporative all of the sudden.

"He's definitely hiding something…" Catherine whispered to him suddenly, while keeping her eyes firmly on Mr. Campbell in front.

"Yeah, but what? Doesn't have to mean he's guilty of anything illegal" Grissom said after a while.

"There's a picture of Susan Carlton on the wall, and he never realized she was one of the victims? The murders have been all over the media by now and he doesn't even recognize her when you show him the picture? Something just isn't right about that…I have a feeling he might know who's the murderer" Catherine whispered and Grissom glanced down at her.

"Well, just try and keep it to yourself for now. We don't wanna alarm him in any way; not now when we're actually making progress" he said and Catherine nodded along. As they followed Mr. Campbell back into the small office, Sara noticed photos lined up in the bookshelf. Catherine and Grissom walked with Mr. Campbell over to the archive shelf where all the papers were kept and Brass was now outside watching the employees with the two police officers. Sara slowly walked up to the bookshelf and glanced through the pictures. One in particular caught her attention and that was a picture of Lily Thomas. She was standing in the middle surrounded by guys on both sides and right next to her was Mr. Campbell standing. His arm around her shoulders and both were smiling sweetly at the camera. Apparently this was a staff picture taken some while ago, but Sara got a funny feeling about it all. Lily Thomas looked so cheerful and peaceful; why would anybody want to hurt her? Sara lifted the picture from the bookshelf and walked over to Grissom, Catherine and Mr. Campbell at the other end of the room.

"Funny how you forgot to mention this" she said sarcastically and all three turned around, eyeing the picture in Sara's hand. Grissom and Catherine exchanged confused looks and then stared at Mr. Campbell.

"You care to explain this, Mr. Campbell?" Catherine asked and Mr. Campbell looked at the picture for a while without answering. Sara suddenly put it upside down on the desk and he was snapped out of his daze. He looked over at her with a surprised expression and she raised an eyebrow with her hand still firmly on the picture frame.

"Look, Lily worked here for about three years before going back to school. Then about ten months ago she returned on voluntary work and worked once a week. Came in regularly until two weeks ago…I phoned her several times but she never returned my calls. Guess she got bored with the whole thing again" Mr. Campbell explained nervously while containing eye contact with Sara the whole time.

"Again? I thought she left because of school?" Sara asked and tilted her head to the side. She knew Mr. Campbell was lying about something in all this but wasn't quite sure exactly what.

"Yeah but I could see that her enthusiasm for the job was gone by then. Good thing school was there to keep her busy. Lily would get very restless unless she had something to occupy her mind all the time" Mr. Campbell and smiled vaguely at the thought of some dear memory. Sara glanced over at Grissom and then turned her attention back towards Mr. Campbell again.

"So you just let her go because she was sick of working here?" she asked, getting the strong feeling that Mr. Campbell had been more than just a boss to Lily Thomas.

"I know how it must sound but that's what happened basically. Lily felt there was nothing more here to get excited about and even though she loved dogs, she wanted to quit" Mr. Campbell explained.

"Then you won't mind that we take a look at her resignation?" Sara asked and hinted at the archives. Mr. Campbell glanced back at it and then looked back at her again. He seemed very nervous now and that's when Sara knew Lily Thomas hadn't handed in a resignation in the first place.

"Well, Lily came to talk to me instead of handing in some paper. She felt it was too impersonal and since we had known each other for several years, she also felt more comfortable talking face to face about the whole thing" Mr. Campbell explained and Sara slowly lifted up the framed picture.

"Mr. Campbell, when was this photograph taken?" she asked, feeling that both Grissom and Catherine were glancing at her. Mr. Campbell leaned in closer to look at the picture and then looked up at Sara.

"I would say about nine months ago…yep! Lily was chosen 'Employee of The Month' by everyone here and we held a party for her" he said and smiled.

"Is there any possibility Lily could have known Susan?" Grissom asked suddenly and Mr. Campbell turned away from Sara. She felt chills down her spine and glanced down at the picture again.

"No, I don't think so. I met almost all of her friends while she worked here both times…and I can't remember seeing Susan Carlton at anytime" he said and shrugged.

"Well, could she have been in when you were sick? Just because you're the manager doesn't mean you've never been home a day from work" Catherine said and Mr. Campbell scratched the back of his head. Sara couldn't tell if he was either coming up with a lie or actually trying to remember being sick.

"I guess there's always a possibility. About six months ago I was sick for two weeks and Lily was in charge during that time…why? You think Lily might know who killed this Susan Carlton?" Mr. Campbell asked and looked at Catherine and Grissom. They could tell he was getting worried but Sara wasn't so sure it was real. Many people could fake grief way too easily and Mr. Campbell might be one of them.

"Mr. Campbell, I'm sorry but we found Lily's body yesterday…she was murdered in the same way as Susan Carlton and we believe that somebody here at this kennel might know something about the murders" Catherine said in a soft tone of voice and Mr. Campbell became stunned. Grissom studied him for a moment and then found himself glancing over at Sara. She was standing there still with the picture in her hand and had deepen in thoughts once again.

"Oh my God…! Have you notified her family? She was really close with her sister since their parents died and…" Mr. Campbell trailed off and sat down by his desk.

"Uh, Mr. Campbell, we will be taking these papers with us and also all of your employees. It would be very helpful if you could come down to the station as well" Grissom said after a moment of complete silence. Sara looked up at him and then glanced down at Mr. Campbell, who just nodded without saying anything.

* * *

Down at the station, Brass and Grissom were busy questioning all the employees. Sara had gotten tired after the first seven guys since all of them seemed to be paying more attention to her than the questions. So in between guys she saw her chance to get some coffee. Given, it wasn't fresh coffee but she desperately needed the caffeine by now. She quickly walked down the hallway, covering her mouth as a yawn escaped. After being up for almost two whole shifts without any breaks, a cup of coffee seemed very luxurious all of the sudden.

"Need for speed?" Catherine asked with a grin as she walked up Sara.

"Need to stay awake is more like it" Sara said with a tired smile as the coffee poured into the plastic cup.

"Yeah, doubles can do that to you. But at least I go home and sleep afterwards…can you say the same?" Catherine asked and this time she didn't smile at all. In fact, she looked very concerned and in moments like these Sara wished she could just disappear. Catherine was far from the only person who had asked her about her so-called sleeping habits.

"I get enough sleep" Sara said once the cup was filled and took a sip of it. For a short moment she forgot her surroundings and just enjoyed the feeling of hot coffee pouring through her body. The sweet sensation of temporarily energy was desperately needed at this point. She had been working non-stop, which meant no food and no beverage for countless numbers of hours.

"Guess we better be heading back. One of the employees might say something useful" Catherine said, smoothly changing the subject once she realized Sara was already avoiding it.

"My money is on the manager" Sara said as they started walking back towards the interrogation room.

"Mr. Campbell? What, the sobbing story didn't do it for you?" Catherine asked and couldn't help but smile at her own sarcasm. Sara shook her head and took another sip of the coffee.

"I doubt that Lily Thomas was just another employee to him; a pretty girl like her and a married man like him? Those two were definitely up to some non-work related business" she said and Catherine gave her a puzzled look for a moment.

"How can you tell that he's married?" she asked and Sara glanced at her over the tip of the cup.

"Well for once he had pictures of his wife and kids, and that tan line on his finger was kinda hard to miss. My guess is that they are probably separated; could be because of the affair…" she said.

"Which would explain why she didn't hand in resignation papers; a whole lot easier talking to the boss if he's your secret lover. Well I guess we better have a nice little chat with our Mr. Campbell" she said and Sara smiled deviously as she swallowed what was left of the coffee.

* * *

Mr. Campbell turned out not to be so corporative once Sara and Catherine started asking questions. They were seated in one of the other interrogation rooms and he had clearly realized that he was a suspect.

"Look, I don't get why you think I did it! Yes, I did have a brief relationship with Lily, but that doesn't mean I killed her…! If anything, that would be proof enough that I'm not guilty!" he said, getting more and more upset. But there was something about him that had Sara still suspicious. He surely couldn't be innocent as it appeared so she decided to dig deeper.

"So when did you two become more than just boss and employee? Before or after your wife left you?" she asked and Catherine glanced at her across the table. Mr. Campbell seemed almost untouched by this question unlike Catherine, and looked straight up at Sara.

"It happened _after_ my wife left me. I'm sure you wanna believe that it was because of Lily, but it wasn't. Our marriage was over long before Lily started working for me and even longer before we fell in _love_" he said and Sara noticed how he wanted to underline the word 'love' to prove it wasn't just a sleazy affair.

"Right…and when was the last time you saw Lily?" she asked, still very skeptically of him.

"A few days before she quit. We met at her place and had dinner…then I left a few hours later. I was counting on seeing her at work on Monday but she never showed up" he said.

"And this didn't alarm you? Thinking something must have happened for her not to show up? How thoughtful of you to check up on her or call the police…you must have really _loved_ her" Sara said sarcastically and Mr. Campbell got up from his chair.

"Look, I came down here voluntarily and not to be treated like a criminal! Let me know if I can help and if not; I'm out that door!" he said and both Sara and Catherine rose to their feet.

"Before you go, Mr. Campbell, we're gonna need your DNA" Sara said quickly as she saw Mr. Campbell walking towards the door. He froze and slowly turned around, giving her a questionable look.

"What for?" he asked, looking at both CSIs very suspiciously. He sensed that they had left something out earlier and looked over at Sara.

"Standard procedure. Just wanting to eliminate the suspects" she said with a shrug, not caring to explain it in smaller details. Mr. Campbell looked at Catherine who didn't show any greater interest in explaining.

"And since when did I become a suspect?" he asked and turned to face Sara again.

"Since now" she said with a shrug, as if he didn't need to know anything more than that. Catherine felt like she should step in and say something before this got out of hand, but Mr. Campbell beat her to it.

"I don't think so. You got no evidence to say that I'm involved in any way and you just questioned me without any lawyer present" he said and almost looked smug.

"Well, you did come down here voluntarily and never mentioned calling any lawyer. So technically we haven't done anything wrong. But if you feel that you need a lawyer, then call him. Or if you're completely innocent just leave and return with your lawyer when we call you" Sara said flatly with crossed arms and looked at Mr. Campbell with dark eyes.

"Oh, you will be hearing from my lawyer!" Mr. Campbell said loudly and slammed the door shut behind him. Catherine stared at the door and sighed heavily.

"Well there goes another lawsuit" she said but Sara kept staring at the closed door. She knew Mr. Campbell was guilty of something and considering the situation that should be enough to get a warrant.

"Sara? Are you even listening? We're lucky Mr. Campbell didn't confess anything because technically he wasn't brought down here for questioning. We didn't read him his rights, which is why he didn't ask for a lawyer" Catherine said and Sara knew that she was right. They just had to hope that he wouldn't take his complain to higher places.

* * *

The sound of fireworks brought back flashbacks as well. Blurry images went through her mind as she walked towards the front door. Muffled sounds of voices and laughter echoed in her head as Brass rang the doorbell and she was slowly brought back to the reality again.

"Didn't his lawyer say he was going to be home?" Grissom asked suddenly and Brass nodded. Sara kept staring at the white wooden door without saying anything. There were no sounds of anybody inside and after ringing the doorbell a third time, Brass turned around and waved at the two police officers.

"We might as well take a look inside; hopefully something leads us to your Mr. Campbell" he said and the police officers walked past Sara with a crowbar. After the door had been busted open, Brass and the police officers stepped inside with their guns drawn to secure the scene.

"Well, doesn't look like your guy is home after all" Brass said after a while when they all returned. Sara followed Grissom into the hall with her field kit in hand. Hopefully they would find some kind of evidence showing that Mr. Campbell had lied to them earlier. That would give them an even better reason to take him in for questioning.

"I'll take the upstairs" Sara said without even looking Grissom's way and headed towards the spiral stairs. Grissom stood for a moment and watched her walking up the stairs, then headed down the hallway. Obviously she was determined to prove that Mr. Campbell was involved in Lily Thomas' death and he just hoped that she wasn't getting in over her head this time as well.

* * *

Upstairs, Sara turned on her flashlight as she started walking down the dark hallway. All the light were off in the house and all the doors were closed. Or at least that's what it looked like at first. As Sara was getting closer she noticed that the door at the end of the hallway wasn't closed after all. It was slightly opened; as if somebody hadn't had the time to close it properly. She walked up to the door, put down her kit and slowly pushed the door opened with her other hand. The sunlight streamed through the windows curtains and Sara turned off her flashlight while entering the room. It was the master bedroom and looked to be extremely cleaned. Sara step into the room and detected a hint of bleach in the air. She walked over and closed the curtains before opening up her kit, grabbing the luminol. As she started spraying across the wooden floor, the sound of footsteps echoed outside in the hallway. Sara glanced over her shoulder and then turned her attention back towards the floor.

"Found anything interesting?" Brass asked suddenly as he appeared in the doorway and Sara smiled without turning around. She looked down the floor and within seconds a trail of blood drops was leading up to the closet door almost across the bedroom.

"Sure looks that way" she said and slowly walked up to the closet door before looking over at Brass. She turned the doorknob and the door slowly opened up with a squeaking sound.

"I'll notify Grissom" Brass said after staring at the body for a moment. He patted Sara on the shoulder before walking out of the room and then down the stairs. Sara looked down at the body and the gunshot wound to the left temple. She walked over to her kit, picked up the camera and quickly took pictures of the blood trace leading to the door and then started snapping pictures of Mr. Campbell's lifeless body. He was lying on the floor with the gun in his hand, a pool of blood on the floor next to his head.

"Heard you found Mr. Campbell…how does he look?" Grissom asked as he stepped into the room, glancing down at the blood trace on the floor. Sara sat down next to the body and snapped a close-up picture of his face and also the gun. She sighed as she got up and turned around.

"Dead" she said flatly and stepped away from the doorway, allowing Grissom to get a look at the body.

"So if Mr. Campbell killed committed suicide inside the closet why is there blood trail outside in the bedroom?" he asked out loud and glanced over at Sara.

"Well, we both know he didn't kill himself. Somebody else did that. And took the time to actually place him inside the closet with the gun in his hand" she said and Grissom looked down at the body again.

"That is correct" he said with a teasing smile and Sara found herself staring at him, not breathing one more word. She didn't know what to say or what to do. It was as if time had suddenly stopped and a part of her just enjoyed having him so close. They were suddenly alone and she didn't feel angry or awkward. At least not at first but as time slowly started up again, she quickly broke eye contact and walked over to the other end of the room. She cleared her throat as she glanced around the room, hoping to find some kind of evidence that would take her mind of him.

"Nothing seems to be out of place" she said after a while and took a few more pictures of the bedroom in general. Grissom got up and turned around.

"Well, nothing visible to the naked eye anyways" he said, clearly hinting at something and Sara reached for her kit again. She picked up the luminol bottle and walked up to the wall, looking at it for a moment before starting spraying it with luminol.

"And nothing visible to the luminol eye either; this wall is clean" she said after nothing showing up on the white painted wall in front of her. Grissom followed the marked blood trace and walked over to her, careful studying the wall a few moments without saying anything.

"Which means Mr. Campbell was probably not standing up when being shot" he said and Sara glanced down towards the double bed.

"How about lying down?" she suggested and Grissom looked at her. Sara slowly took her eyes off the doubled bed and found she was staring straight at him. They were only inches apart now and Sara forgot all about the crime scene they were practically standing in.

"I think you're right" Grissom said suddenly and walked over to the bed. Sara was pulled out of her daze.

"Although something tells me these sheets are newly washed. There's no blood on them" Sara said.

"But if we're lucky the bloody ones are downstairs in the laundry room" Grissom said.

"Right. So…I'll grab them?" she asked and Grissom nodded with a smile. Sara felt herself hesitating for a moment before exiting the bedroom.

* * *

"Brass is questioning the wife, but I gotta tell you; it doesn't look like she's involved. Apparently she was at her parents house until the police called" Catherine said and sat down at the table.

"Which means we are fresh out of suspects…and four bodies downstairs" Sara said while tapping her pen against the notepad. She tried desperately to think of something that they might have overlooked earlier, but kept coming back to Mr. Campbell.

"Sara, when will you be getting the results on those bloody sheets you found?" Grissom asked.

"As soon as Greg beeps me" Sara said and waved around her pager.

"Well how about we head back to Mr. Campbell's house? Sounds to me the two of you need some fresh eyes at the scene!" Catherine said.

"Sounds good to me" Grissom said with an approving nod. Catherine signaled to Warrick and Nick to follow her and they excited the room. Grissom looked over at Sara, who seemed awfully quiet and distant.

"You okay?" he asked in a soft tone of voice.

"Yeah I'm fine. It's just that…it's been a very long day" she said and managed to smile at him.

"Well hopefully it's over soon" he said and a small hint of a smile appeared.

"Since when did you become so positive?" Sara asked and Grissom smiled.

"Hey, Sara, wanna drive?" Catherine asked suddenly as she popped back into the room. Sara looked over at her, quickly gathering her thoughts.

"Yeah. Uh…I'll meet you in the car" Sara said and glanced over at Grissom before quickly disappearing out the room. Catherine gave Grissom a confused look.

"What?" Grissom asked and Catherine tilted her head, trying to come up with something to say. Various explanations went through her mind and finally she decided to keep quiet.

"Oh nothing! Just got the distinct feeling that I interrupted something!" she said with a big grin. She knew what was going on and she loved it.

"What makes you think that?" Grissom asked, looking as confused as ever.

"I'm gonna let you figure that one out for yourself…_genius_" Catherine said and walked out of the room; this time with a smirk on her face.

* * *

**TBC...**


	6. Chapter 6

Photos from the crime scene covered the table and the five CSIs studied them for a while under silence.

"Nothing in this case makes any sense. Are we even sure Mr. Campbell is our guy?" Warrick asked and Sara slowly took her eyes off the photos.

"He was the only one who had any contact with Wilson, which we know for sure is our German Shepard, and he knew two of the victims. Maybe even the third victim if we look hard enough for a connection. And he sure didn't look very innocent with that bullet hole through his skull…" she said and Grissom looked up at her. Catherine pulled up the photo of the bloody sheets from the laundry room.

"Well, we need to compare this blood to our three victims and then Mr. Campbell…whoever killed him probably knows who killed the girls" she said with a sigh.

"I'm going go and have a chat with the wife; see if she noticed something strange around the house" Sara said suddenly and stepped out of the room before the others managed to say anything else.

"Right. I'll go and check with Greg about the DNA results on the sheets" Catherine said and left the room. Warrick and Nick looked over at Grissom, whom looked as confused as they did.

"What?" Grissom finally asked.

"Well…Sara's got the wife and Cath the DNA. What should we do?" Nick asked.

"What you always do, Nick. Process" Grissom said with a shrug and he too left the room.

* * *

Sara leaned forward and stared at Mrs. Campbell without saying anything at first. The lawyer was obviously getting annoyed with her, but Sara didn't take her eyes off the wife. She could tell they were both wondering why she wasn't asking any questions but she didn't care. The whole case hadn't made any sense since they discovered Mr. Campbell had a connection to two of the victims. That part was pretty logical but they hadn't any forensic evidence tiding him to the murders. Which meant a possible serial killer was walking around out in Las Vegas, selecting his next victim.

"Ms. Sidle, either you ask your questions or my client is out of here" the lawyer said suddenly.

"Mrs. Campbell, did anyone else have access to your house? A friend, sibling or co-worker?" Sara asked and the wife seemed to be contemplating this for a second.

"Not that I know" Mrs. Campbell said and shrugged.

"Did you know Lily Thomas?" Sara asked quickly and Mrs. Campbell shrugged again.

"Not really. I met her a few times when visiting the kennel with the girls; they wanted to surprise their dad from time to time. On our last visit I noticed Lily coming out of Dan's office and that's when I knew" she said with a sad look upon her face.

"Knew what?" Sara asked, impatiently waiting for an answer.

"That I had to leave him. All those phone calls and the numerous of times he talked about Lily around the house should have been proof enough, but I guess not" Mrs. Campbell said.

"So their relationship was the reason you left?" Sara asked.

"Lily wasn't his first, Ms. Sidle. She was simply the special one. During all those years he worked in the kennel, he probably slept with over half of the young girls working there. I only knew of some thanks to Susan" Mrs. Campbell said and Sara froze.

"Susan Carlton?" she asked and Mrs. Campbell nodded.

"Her parents are old friends of mine; we're members at the same club. Lovely people really and their daughters has play-dates with my girls from time to time. Susan was in college when the family moved to Vegas, so Dan didn't know who she was at first. Apparently they met one day at the kennel when Susan was visiting with a friend" Mrs. Campbell explained with a sad smile.

"Did Ms. Carlton tell you about their relationship?" Sara asked and glanced over at the huge mirror in front of her. On the other side of it, in the observation booth, Grissom liked the turn of events.

"Yeah, she did. The day before she went missing actually…she confessed being 'intimate' with Dan months after he had realized who she really was. Also gave me the names of some of the other girls he had been seeing before her. Apparently they had spoken to her and she felt it was time for me to know about it" Mrs. Campbell said and got a sad look in her eyes.

"Mrs. Campbell, do you know a Eva Richards?" Sara asked and Mrs. Campbell gave it some thought.

"No, I don't think so. Why?" she asked after a while.

"She was killed by the same person that killed Susan and Lily" Sara said bluntly.

"Oh my God!" Mrs. Campbell cried out and covered her mouth.

"Mrs. Campbell, I realize this must be difficult for you, but I could really use that list of names with girls your husband was…intimate with" Sara said, leaning forward again. Mrs. Campbell nodded slowly and closed her eyes for a moment, clearly taking all this in.

"I will have it send to you as soon as possible. I just…gotta make preparations for Dan's funeral and talk to my girls. They still think their dad will take them out this weekend" she said and tears started tumbling down her cheeks. Sara gave her a compassionate look across the table.

"You'll be able to pick up the body after the autopsy is done" she said and Mrs. Campbell nodded.

"Is there anything else you need to know?" she asked.

"Actually, there is, Mrs. Campbell. You don't happen to know if your husband saw Susan the day she disappeared?" Sara asked and leaned forward.

"No, I don't. Last thing I heard Dan was still seeing Lily. He broke it off with Susan quite a while before meeting Lily" Mrs. Campbell explained and Sara nodded slightly.

All her questions had been answered in detail and at the moment she couldn't really think of anything else. That, and she didn't have the heart to keep Mrs. Campbell from her two daughters.

"Thanks for you cooperation, Mrs. Campbell. We'll let you know if we have any other questions later on" Sara said politely and shook hands with Mrs. Campbell.

"I just hope I was of any help to your investigation, Ms. Sidle" she said and Sara smiled at her.

"More than you know, Mrs. Campbell" she said and Mrs. Campbell left the interrogation room with her lawyer. Sara let out a heavy sigh and stepped out into the hallway.

"Well, there goes the connection to Eva Richards" Grissom suddenly said as he appeared next to her.

"Giving up so easily? Just because the wife didn't know her, doesn't mean nobody else did. I think I'm gonna try and get a hold of her mother" Sara said and headed down the hallway.

* * *

Catherine leaned towards the counter, not taking her eyes off the humming machine. It seemed she had been running back and forth to the DNA lab several times these two shifts, and by now she had started to fantasize what she would do when the shift finally ended. Greg was playing his questionable music while working on some samples for a dayshift case and hadn't seemed to notice Catherine yet. Then as he turned around on the chair, he froze up for a moment. He quickly turned off the loud music.

"Catherine! What brings you to my humble lab?" he asked and Catherine hinted at the machine.

"Waiting for the results on our Mr. Campbell" she said and Greg got out of his chair.

"Well I would have paged you like I always do" he said.

"I know but I got nothing else to do. Besides, this piece of evidence is of great importance to the case. It will mostly likely prove that he murdered Susan Carlton and Lily Thomas" Catherine explained.

"What about the other victim? Eva Richards?" Greg asked.

"We haven't been able to connect the dots to her yet. There were no dog hairs at all on her body or at the crime scene, and Mr. Campbell apparently never met her" Catherine explained and sighed.

"That sucks" Greg said and in that moment the machine beeped. Catherine quickly grabbed the paper as it came out of the printer before Greg had the chance.

"Sorry, Greggo, but there's no time for a fancy presentation. Later!" Catherine called out as she dashed out of the DNA lab. Out in the hallway she ran right into Grissom and handed over the paper to him.

"What's this?" he asked with a confused look.

"Remember the comparison we made Greg do with the semen from Lily Thomas' pants and the blood from Mr. Campbell's 'suicide'? Well that would be the DNA results!" Catherine explained with a big grin. Grissom looked down at the paper and then looked back up at her with a satisfied smile.

"Now this would at least solve the murder of Susan Carlton and Lily Thomas. I would say we're on the right track so far" he said and Catherine nodded. They started walking down towards the break room where Warrick and Nick were holding up. The two CSIs were playing cards and having some coffee; unaware that Grissom and Catherine had even entered the room.

"Wake up boys!" Catherine called out and everybody, including Grissom, turned to look at her.

"What's up?" Warrick asked and swallowed the last of his coffee.

"The DNA results. Now that is enough to assume that Mr. Campbell killed both Susan Carlton and Lily Thomas. However, there's no immediate connection to Eva Richards so far. Which means…" Catherine trailed off and Warrick sighed.

"More time in the lab. What are we processing? I thought there was no useful evidence collected from the Eva Richards crime scene?" he asked.

"Well I'm hoping you guys will have better luck than me" Catherine said.

"Fair enough" Nick said and slowly got up. When he and Warrick had left the break room, Catherine took the chance to rest her feet for a moment since she hadn't had a break in what felt like hours.

"Why are you sitting down?" Grissom asked and Catherine sighed.

"Grissom, you can't honestly expect me to process evidence…again! Not everybody has the strength of working a double non-stop like you! We actually need breaks!" she complained and Grissom knew he couldn't really argue with that. But it seemed like he was the only one who wasn't in the mood for sleep. And he knew he wasn't able to get some rest until the case was wrapped up and the guilty was caught.

* * *

Mrs. Richards was a beautiful middle-aged Hispanic woman, dressed in expensive designer outfits. When she stepped into the room, Sara got the feeling that this questioning wasn't going to be easy. She had heard from Brass that Mrs. Richards had been very close with her daughter. She had also heard that Mrs. Richards was a very wealthy woman after her husband's tragic death.

"Mrs. Richards, I'm so sorry for your lost and I realize this must be very difficult for you…"

"Ms. Sidle, save it. I've heard it all before. I'm assuming you needed to ask me some questions regarding my daughter's murder?" Mrs. Richards asked and sighed. Sara was silent for a moment, a bit surprised at the reaction she got from Mrs. Richards.

"Mrs. Richards, did your daughter own a dog?" she asked and glanced down at her notepad.

"Oh, no! Eva didn't care much for animals. Although she did visit one of those kennels that one time…" Mrs. Richards said and Sara froze.

"Did she mention the name of the kennel?" she asked and Mrs. Richards was silent for a moment.

"Yes. I believe the name was _Dog Heaven_…yes, I'm sure of it. Eva also mentioned something about a handsome man she met there. Apparently was quite polite and even asked her out for dinner at the end of her visit" Mrs. Richards explained and Sara scrabbled down the information quickly.

"Do you remember the name of this man?" she asked, never looking up from the notepad.

"Eva only called him Mr. Campbell. No first name…" Mrs. Richards said in a sad tone of voice.

"And why did your daughter visit the kennel, Mrs. Richards?" Sara asked, this time looking up.

"A friend of a friend told her about it. Like I said, Eva wasn't really into owning a pet, but apparently for some reason she was there to check up on some dog. I never learned the reason why…" Mrs. Richards said and this time tears formed in her eyes. Sara stopped writing and wished there was something of meaning she could say, but knew there was no use. The words coming out of her mouth would only be empty to Mrs. Richards. The only comfort Sara could ever contribute was to catch the murderer.

"Thank you, Mrs. Richards. You've been very helpful" she said and got out of the chair.

"Why am I having a hard time believing that, Ms. Sidle? It's been months since you find my daughter's body and the killer is still out there, isn't he?" Mrs. Richards asked as she stood up. She gave Sara a cold look as she left the interrogation room, leaving behind a cloud of musk perfume.

* * *

"Hey! How did things go with Mrs. Richards?" Grissom asked as Sara walked into the break room. She threw down the small notepad on the table and took a seat next to Catherine.

"As well as could be expected. She doesn't exactly have a lot of faith in us" Sara said and sighed.

"Well I can't say I blame her" Catherine said and shrugged.

"I did however find the connection. It seemed that a distant friend told Eva Richards about the kennel, and she considered getting a dog. And that's where she crossed paths with the 'handsome' Mr. Campbell who then asked her out for dinner" Sara said, memorizing the information.

"The guy strikes fast" Catherine commented and Sara nodded slightly.

"Too fast" Grissom added and Sara glanced over at him. He was seated in the couch and didn't look away as their eyes met. Sara, on the other hand, did look away. She was still not very comforted around him, and as much as she wanted that to change, it didn't.

"Okay, so if Warrick and Nick manages to find some piece of evidence linking back to Mr. Campbell or the kennel, that case is pretty much closed. Now we just have to find Mr. Campbell's killer" Catherine said, breaking the awkward silence. Sara looked over at her and nodded.

"Right. Well, I think I'm gonna go and check in on them" she said with a tired smile before she got up and left the break room. Catherine glanced over at Grissom with a smirk.

"What?" Grissom asked, getting slightly annoyed with Catherine.

"You know, I can't believe you're still asking me that. Any blind man could see what's going on here. It's just too bad that you _don't_, Grissom" Catherine said and got out of her chair with a sigh. Grissom stared at her, speechless, as she walked out of the break room. He knew very well what it was that Catherine meant, but also knew he couldn't do anything about it. The rules were there for a reason and it was his job to follow them. And the job came first, no matter what.

* * *

The evidence was neatly lined up on the table as Sara walked into the room. Warrick and Nick looked up with tired eyes, and she knew things weren't going so good.

"No luck, huh?" she asked and sighed as they nodded.

"The only evidence we got is the clothes and those are surprisingly clean; no transfer" Nick said and Sara walked over to take a closer look at Eva Richards' clothes. Just like Lily Thomas', they were ripped and covered in dirt, but there wasn't much blood splatter this time.

"Have you tested this blood?" Sara suddenly asked without taking her eyes off the clothes.

"Of course. And it's the victim's blood. Besides, the splatter is consisted with her head wound" Warrick said, sounding offended. Sara turned around and faced them.

"You're right. I'm sorry" she said and tried to smile, but failed miserably. She had been working non-stop round the clock and every time she slowed down, her whole body ached of exhaustion.

"I think we all need some sleep. It's like we're getting cross-eyed from staring this much at the evidence" Warrick said suddenly and Sara sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. You two go on ahead. I'll take care of this" she said and turned around. Warrick and Nick glanced at each other in silence, before grabbing Sara by the arms and nearly dragging her away from the evidence table.

"_What_ are you doing?" she asked, getting slightly annoyed. The lack of sleep and coffee was starting to take it's toll her by now. But Warrick and Nick didn't notice the sharp tone of voice.

"You can thank us later. Now, we are all going home to get some rest. It's the only way to close this case; with well-rested eyes to view the evidence with! Got it?" Warrick said and Sara was tempted to marsh back into the evidence room, but she knew she would never make it inside again.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but Grissom is the one giving the orders around here. So technically I don't need to listen to you right now" she said and crossed her arms. Nick looked at her with a devious grin while Warrick pressed speed dial on his cell phone. Sara sighed and walked past the two in silence, heading back towards the break room.

"You know, one day I'm gonna get you both for this" she said without turning around, knowing very well that both Nick and Warrick were right behind her. They refused to let her work the case while everybody else was catching up on some sleep; especially not since she seemed to need it more.

"Less talk more walk" Warrick said and Nick chuckled. Sara tried to hold back a smile but failed. It felt good knowing she still had in it her to actually smile and not just walking around looking pissed, although that was how she felt most of the time. Sara came to an abrupt halt when she noticed that the break room was empty, and she quickly turned around facing Warrick and Nick.

"Where to now?" she asked, not being able to hold back a smirk.

"Well if I know Grissom right, he's probably in his office" Nick said and the smirk on Sara's face slowly disappeared. Warrick and Nick grabbed a hold of her again and they started walking towards Grissom's office. Sara knew Grissom would take their side on this subject because he had earlier stated that Sara should slow down. But in spite feeling incredibly tired, she didn't want to sleep at a time like this. The case was moments away from being finished and she didn't want to waste any time on sleep, since she would probably be staring up at the ceiling anyway.

"Hey, Grissom!" Warrick called out as he spotted Grissom further down the hall. Sara tried desperately one last time to get away, but she was firmly stuck in between Warrick and Nick.

"I thought you were working on the evidence from the Eva Richards' murder?" Grissom asked.

"We were but there's nothing there, just like before" Nick said.

"So we were thinking about taking a break…you know, catch up on some sleep" Warrick said. Grissom looked over at Sara, who remained silent. She wasn't going to pretend she even liked the guys' idea.

"I think that sounds like a plan. Why don't you try and track down Cath while you're at it?" Grissom said and disappeared down the hallway.

"You heard the man. Let's go!" Warrick said but Sara stood her ground this time.

"You go. I'll stay. And before you try anything; I'm not gonna allow the two of you to drag me around the lab! I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself. There's no need for you to worry" she said flatly and walked into the break room without even looking at them. There was still some coffee left so she filled up a cup for herself in silence. Warrick and Nick stared at her for a moment before finally walking away, knowing there was no use trying to reason with her. Sara had made up her mind and she was going to stay overnight at the lab like so many times before this one. She walked over to the couch and took a seat, feeling her body aching as she leaned back. The smell of hot coffee was something she had been missing for the past few hours, so it didn't take long before the cup was emptied. And even though Sara had planned on staying awake, her eyes fell shut within seconds.

* * *

There was a distant sound of talking. It started to sound like a man's voice. Her eyelids felt heavy as Sara slowly managed to open up her eyes. She glanced around in the dimmed light with a confused look on her face. Then she remembered where she was and found herself staring straight at Grissom.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked and it actually seemed he was smiling.

"Actually I was. Until you woke me up" Sara said and grunted as she slowly sat up in the couch. She had been lying in the same awkward position the whole time and it had taken its toll on her body.

"Sorry about that. I just assumed everybody had gone home for the time being so I expected to find the break room empty" Grissom said with a shrug. Sara stared at him, too exhausted to really do anything else. She was getting a headache and she had been starving for hours now, but the thing she craved the most at the moment was more sleep. But there was something about Grissom that made her stay awake.

"What are you doing there anyway? I thought you would be working in your office or in the evidence room…" she said slowly, almost being too exhausted to talk.

"Well this is a break room after all. I figured I should take some time off from all that horrible paperwork on my desk. Didn't expect to find you here, although I can't say I'm not surprised" Grissom said and Sara smiled at the thought of Grissom stuck behind his desk, staring at the pile of paperwork.

"So what are _you_ doing here?" Grissom asked and Sara gave him a look.

"Isn't that pretty obvious? I'm trying to sleep" she said, resting her head in her hands for a moment.

"Why not try and sleep at home in your bed instead of using the break room couch?" Grissom asked. Sara slowly shook her head and then looked up at him with sleepy eyes.

"Did you come to here to take a break or to check up on me? Because I'm doing just fine…at least until you woke me up that is" she said, pulling her hands through the dark brown hair.

"I came for coffee" Grissom said flatly and walked over to the coffeemaker. The smell of freshly made coffee made Sara slightly more awake, and she forced herself up from the couch. She walked over to Grissom and watched him pour up a cup of coffee, inhaling the wonderful smell.

"Here" he said and handed over the cup to her. Sara gave him a confused look for a moment, but then decided to just take it. As she took the first sip of the coffee, a warm feeling filled up her body. She hadn't tasted coffee at all for hours and it just felt so good.

"Thanks" she said quietly and walked over to one of the easy chairs. She was still quite sleepy but knew a few cups of coffee would soon change that. Grissom poured up another cup of coffee and sat down in the easy chair next to her, quietly drinking his coffee. Sara glanced over at him over the tip of her cup, still wondering if he had come to the break room to check up on her. Somehow that made her angry but also gave her butterflies in her stomach. It seemed like lately Grissom had actually noticed her and spending this much time so close to him was something Sara never imagined would happen. Only a year ago she would do just about anything just to be near him through the whole shift, but that was in the past. Now she was differently person and had actually a life outside of work. But that didn't necessary meant that she never thought about him in her spare time, because there were times when she did nothing else.

"A penny for your thoughts" Grissom said suddenly and Sara snapped out of her daze.

"You would be wasting your money" she said with a tricky smile and sipped on her coffee. Grissom raised an eyebrow and gave her an inquiring look.

"Oh, I don't think so" he said and Sara glanced over at him, unsure if he was joking or not. Everything about him always made her so unsure, expect when they were working a case. Then they seemed to be on the same wavelength, at least most of the time.

"Whom do you think murdered Mr. Campbell?" she asked, smoothly avoiding answering his question. She wasn't going to tell a living soul what was on her mind and especially not to Grissom.

"You know that I don't 'think' anything; I just go where the evidence tells me to" he said diplomatically.

"Nobody can ever stay objective in a case" Sara said and stared at him, almost forgetting that she was holding one hot cup of coffee in her hands.

"No they don't. But they should" Grissom said, staring back at her. Sara wasn't sure how to respond to that, because she knew he was right like so many other times. But somehow she didn't want him to get the last word since she had been trying to prove him wrong all through the case.

"Not everybody has your kind of focus, Grissom" she said and walked over to the counter with the cup. She swallowed the last of her coffee before putting down the cup in the sink.

"And I'm not saying that they should, Sara, but you of all people must know how draining it is allowing yourself being affected in every case" Grissom said. He had put down his cup on the table now and was turned towards her, staring at her intensely.

"So we're talking about me now? Funny, I thought we were talking about Mr. Campbell" she said, knowing that she sounded bitter but she couldn't help it.

"So it's okay when we're talking about everybody else _but_ you?" Grissom asked.

"That's not what I meant and you know it" Sara said, getting more bitter and doing her best to remain calm. She didn't want to start another fight because this time she wouldn't apologize.

"Then tell me what you meant. Sara, I can't keep guessing what you mean because obviously I'm not very good at it or otherwise you wouldn't be this angry" Grissom said, getting out of the easy chair. He walked over to Sara and now he was standing inches away from her.

"I'm not angry. I'm just…" Sara trailed off as she stared at him, trying to find the right words. Maybe she wasn't sure either why she was angry, because that feeling inside of her was anger. And it had gotten such control of her that she couldn't even remember the last time she was happy.

"I just wanna find the killer" she said with a sigh. That wasn't what she wanted to say from the beginning but she didn't have the courage enough to speak what was on her mind.

"Is that really it, Sara?" Grissom asked and he kept staring at her.

"Yes" Sara said, almost choking on the simple word. She wanted to elaborate but got interrupted by Grissom's pager that started beeping. He looked down at it and sighed. Sara knew that could only mean thing; more work. A part of her were relived that he had to go but an even bigger part wanted him to stay, giving her a chance to explain herself.

"It's Ecklie. I have to go" Grissom said and looked back up at Sara. She nodded silently, not daring to speak at that moment. Grissom stared at her for a while before quietly walking out of the break room.

* * *

**TBC... (And the plot thickens!) ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

Catherine walked into the evidence room, finding Sara hovering over Eva Richards' clothes.

"Did you sleep…_at all_?" Catherine asked and raised a skeptical eyebrow as she walked up to Sara.

"Yes I did" Sara said without even looking up.

"So you're always this way after napping?" Catherine asked and this time Sara looked up. Catherine couldn't help but smile when she saw the furious look in Sara's eyes, because that was evidence enough.

"How did it go with finding the murder weapon?" Sara asked and turned her head back down towards the microscope again. Catherine leaned towards the evidence table and sighed.

"Well, if your theory checks out then we might never find it" she said.

"Probably but we gotta check out every crime scene anyway; without any murder weapon it's hard to figure out exactly how they were all killed" Sara said and went over the last piece of clothing in the microscope. When it came up clean aside from dirt consisted with the dirt from the crime scene, she looked up at Catherine again.

"Okay, so we got the connection between all three victims and Mrs. Richards' testimony that Mr. Campbell dated Eva Richards. Just like he dated Susan Carlton and Lily Thomas; that has to count for something" she said, hoping that Catherine would agree and acclaim the case closed. Then the easier task was left to deal with; finding Mr. Campbell's murderer.

"Yeah but without an actual murder weapon, that doesn't count for a whole lot" Catherine said and shrugged. Sara sighed and pulled her hands through the wavy hair, trying desperately to think of something to could help them find the murder weapon, when there was a knock at the doorframe. Catherine and Sara looked over, finding Nick standing there with a smile on his face.

"Guess who is waiting for us in the interrogation room?" he asked.

"Santa?" Catherine asked and shrugged. Sara looked over at Nick with a lump in her throat. This was certainly not the time for playing games with her.

"Lucy Thomas" Nick said and Sara's heart skipped a beat.

"Lucy Thomas? Lily Thomas' sister?" she asked and could hardly believe it. Brass had already spoken with Lily Thomas' family, including her sister and they hadn't send for her. Which meant she had come in on her own behalf, apparently having something to share with them.

"Yep. And check this out; that list of women Mr. Campbell were 'intimate' with that Mrs. Campbell mentioned? Well we just received it from the friendly Post Office and Lucy Thomas is one of the names that pops up" Nick explained quickly and Sara was stunned. She had been so busy with the evidence from the Eva Richards' crime scene that she had completely forgotten about the list. Which had turned out to be of more help than she had imagined.

"So the two sisters were sleeping with the same man? This I gotta hear!" Catherine said with a deviously smile and quickly followed Nick out of the evidence room. Sara cleared away the evidence from the table while thinking about her conversation with Grissom earlier in the break room. For once her mind wasn't occupied with the current case, even though they had just had a major breakthrough.

* * *

Lucy Thomas pulled back her brown hair and sighed. Tears were forming in her eyes and she looked like a complete mess. Sara would guess that the young woman would otherwise look very beautiful. But now she was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a simple red T-shirt, with uncombed hair, red eyes and a pale face. Sara was standing in the observation room together with Nick, Warrick and Catherine, waiting for the interrogation to begin. Grissom had just entered and were pouring up a glass of water for Lucy Thomas. There wasn't an uncomfortable silence inside the interrogation room but Sara wanted answers instead of watching Grissom bonding with a potential murder suspect.

"So, Ms. Thomas, what brought you here?" Grissom asked softly as Lucy Thomas sipped on the water. She looked at him over the tip of the glass, seeming to contemplate the simple question. Sara waited anxiously for the answer, although she already had a pretty good guess what it was.

"Because of the list. I know Susan gave it to Mrs. Campbell" Lucy said with a shaky voice and put down the glass on the table, staring at it for a while.

"And how did you know Susan Carlton?" Grissom asked, still in a very soft tone of voice.

"I knew her through Lily. Met her a few times while visiting the kennel; we went out one time together and that's when Lily found out about Susan's relationship with Dan" Lucy explained without looking up.

"Was there an argument between your sister and Susan Carlton?" Grissom asked.

"No, not really. Lily was mostly shocked but they were still tight when we dropped off Susan at her place" Lucy said and shrugged.

"So tell me about the list, Lucy. How come you ended up on it?" Grissom asked.

"I'm still not sure about that. I knew how Dan had treated both Susan and Lily, but still I felt drawn to him, you know? There was just something about him that made me come back for more. Maybe it was because I wasn't suppose to have him in the first place; him being married and having kids" she explained, tapping on the table with her long nails.

"So you became involved with Mr. Campbell after he and your sister broke up?" Grissom asked.

"Yeah. Lily never knew; I didn't have the heart to tell her after all she went through with him. Although I think Dan never got over her as well" Lucy said slowly.

"What makes you think that?" Grissom asked and Sara couldn't take her eyes off Lucy Thomas by now.

"He called me 'Lily' a few times when we…you know. And I could tell just by the way he looked at me sometimes. I've heard all my life that I'm a splitting image of Lily" Lucy said and tears started rolling down her cheeks. She picked up a tissue from her duffel bag and wiped away the tears.

"Ms. Thomas, tell me again why you came in today" Grissom said after a moment of silence.

"Because of the list; I knew you would be getting it soon enough from Mrs. Campbell when I heard that she had been questioned by the police" Lucy said.

"Did Mrs. Campbell herself tell you this?" Grissom asked, and Sara thought back on her conversation with Mrs. Campbell. There hadn't been anything there that even suggested she knew Lily Thomas had a sister.

"Hell no. She has never even met me! It was Eva's mom who told me…" Lucy said and Sara froze.

"Mrs. Richards? How do you know her? Were you and Eva Richards friends?" Grissom asked and Lucy swallowed the last of the water. She put down the empty glass on the steel table, nervously tapping on it with her nails again.

"We worked together. Eva was the popular girl and we did lunch a few times, but I wouldn't call us 'friends' because then Eva had thousands of friends at work. And still she tagged along with me to the kennel where we ran into Dan, and I'm guessing you already know the rest of the story. Anyways, this was after he and I had ended it, and yet I didn't warn Eva about him…" Lucy explained, for once expanding without Grissom having to ask her. To Sara, some of the pieces were slowly falling into right place but she were surprised to find out that Lucy Thomas had been in contact with all three victims. Given, she was Lily Thomas' sister but she had also been friends with both Susan Carlton and Eva Richards. She had even been Eva Richards' co-worker and actually been there when Eva Richards had met Mr. Campbell for the very first time.

"So you have quite the history with Mr. Campbell, Ms. Thomas. Do you think he murdered your sister, as well as Susan Carlton and Eva Richards?" Grissom asked and Lucy looked up straight at him. There was something about her now that caught Grissom's attention. She didn't look like a woman who grieved her beloved sister's death; more like she was guilty of something.

"I _know_ he did" Lucy said, giving Sara the creeps.

"Ms. Thomas, you must know that without any evidence…there's no way to prove that. How can you be so sure?" Grissom asked calmly, keep a straight face as usual.

"Because he told me so himself" Lucy said and started tapping her nails against the glass, without breaking off eye contact with Grissom.

"I see. And when did you meet him?" Grissom asked.

"Don't really remember. When did the coroner establish time of death?" Lucy asked and tilted her head. This time Grissom did react and couldn't keep a straight face like before. Inside the observation room, Sara's jaw dropped to the floor. She could hardly believe what she had just heard, along with the others. Lucy Thomas had practically confessed to first-degree murder and didn't seem sad at all.

"Ms. Thomas, are you aware of your rights?" Grissom finally asked and Lucy nodded slowly.

"Yes, a police officer informed me about them before letting me in here. But that's not what you really wanted to ask me, Mr. Grissom, is it? More like why did I murdered Dan? You'll be surprised what losing a sister does to you" Lucy explained and tears started streaming down her cheeks, but this time she didn't bother to wipe them away. Sara stared at the young woman, feeling the tears dwelling up in her own eyes. She quickly turned around and exited the observation room before Warrick, Nick or Catherine had the chance to stop her. Sara looked around the hallway, being lost for a moment, not knowing where to go. The tears wouldn't go away this time and she headed down towards the main entrance with a big lump in her throat, doing her very best to keep the tears from running down her cheeks.

* * *

The night had fallen over the city of Las Vegas, and there was a distant sound of fireworks. All kinds of colors light up the dark evening sky and Sara couldn't help but admire them. She wiped away the last tear that had tumbled down her cheek, and sighed heavily. It had been years since the last time she had allowed herself to cry over a case, but back in the observation room things had just gotten too intense. Sara couldn't really blame Lucy Thomas for murdering Mr. Campbell, because the man had murdered her sister after all. But in spite of that, Sara knew how things would go for Lucy Thomas when she left the crime lab with the police officers. Ten to twenty years for first-degree murder, and when she got out her whole future would be ruined. Even though what Lucy had done was very wrong, Sara didn't feel sorry for Mr. Campbell being dead. Not even imaging his two little daughter's growing up without a father moved her. She just sat down in the parking lot on the sidewalk, staring up at the colorful evening sky with moistly eyes and going over the case inside her head. Once again she realized Grissom had been right; she hadn't handled the case like a professional. Her emotions had gotten the better end of her and how was Grissom supposed to trust her in the future? Sara sighed and looked down at the ground.

* * *

Grissom was staring down at the files in front of him on the desk, but none of it seemed to be making any sense. He glanced at his watch for the third time in the past five minutes, wondering where Sad had gone. According to Catherine she had abruptly left the observation room after Lucy Thomas had confessed to killing Mr. Campbell. Grissom knew all too well how the case had affected Sara, but so had a lot of other cases over the years. Grissom was snapped out of his thoughts, as there was a knock on the door. He looked up and found Sara standing in the doorway with a weak smile on her face.

"I heard you were looking for me" she said quietly and Grissom motioned for her to take a seat. She slowly walked over to one of the chairs and gave him a nervous smile as she sat down.

"Are you feeling all right, Sara?" Grissom asked softly and Sara wondered for a moment if she should even try to deny that. It was probably obvious to everybody on the team that she wasn't and by now she was too tired to keep the chin up in front of them.

"You spoke to Catherine?" she asked and Grissom didn't answer that, but the silence was proof enough.

"This is me asking; not her or anybody else" Grissom said instead and now it was Sara that didn't know quite what to say. Usually she was the one with all the words at situations like these and Grissom the one who stared at her, speechless. Now the tables had turned and she tried to find the right words.

"I'm okay" she said, staring at Grissom with sadness in her eyes. Luckily he didn't seem to notice that she had been crying, which he wasn't supposed to do either. But somewhere inside of her she wanted him to actually see how she was really feeling for once, without her having to tell him.

"Look, Sara, I know this case wasn't easy and even though it's over now, there will be others like it in the future…" Grissom said and Sara knew exactly where he was going with this.

"Don't worry, I won't get involved next time…not unless you want me to" she said.

"And I appreciate that. But what I was going to say is that next time a case like this comes along, that you allow me to help you. I know that you might think that I don't trust you, Sara, but I do" Grissom explained and Sara stared blankly at him.

"But you're still going to keep an eye on me?" she asked after taking in what he had just said.

"I'm sorry about that but it seemed like it was the right thing to do…then. But now I think there's no need for that. You do an exemplary work practically all the time, Sara, and it wouldn't be the same if I didn't give you your space. But I do think that you need to take some time off whenever you feel like it; we'll simply manage without you somehow on those days" Grissom explained and smiled at her. Sara liked everything she had heard so far, but she knew she wouldn't be taking much time off at all. In the end, it would be Grissom ordering her to stay at home; otherwise she would come in to work. But at least he still trusted her and just hearing him utter those words was enough to forgive him completely.

"Is that all?" Sara asked after a while, knowing that if she didn't leave soon that she would most likely fall a sleep in the chair. Grissom could tell that she wasn't okay at all but decided to leave that discussion for another day when she was more awake.

"Yes. Unless you have something on your mind?" Grissom asked and Sara was silent for a moment.

"Grissom, I'm _fine_" Sara said and didn't know why but her lips formed a smile. At a time like this she was actually smiling at him, when all she wanted to do was to sleep for an eternity. She slowly got out of the chair and walked over to the door. She then turned around as she was standing in the doorway.

"Oh, and Grissom?" she asked and Grissom looked over at her.

"Yes?" he asked. Sara smiled at him, this time on purpose.

"Thanks…for everything. I won't let you down again" she said and now it was Grissom's turn to smile.

"You never did" he said and Sara started walking down the hallway with butterflies in her stomach. In the beginning of the first shift she had practically hated his guts and now she couldn't stop smiling. Just when she thought she had Gil Grissom figured out, he would do something completely unlike him and leaving her confused once again. This time it was a good feeling; one that had made her smile again.

* * *

"_What_ are you still doing here?" Catherine asked as she stepped into the office. Grissom put away the last folder and looked up at her.

"I believe this is what people call working, Catherine" he said and Catherine crossed her arms.

"Yeah, well that part I get, Gil, but according to my watch the shift ended over an hour ago" she said.

"I always stay over late. And why aren't you at home by the way?" Grissom asked while he started packing up his things and getting out of his chair. Catherine walked over to the desk and took a closer look at the stack of folders.

"Yeah, but not to do paperwork. Come on, Grissom, get out of here!" she said and Grissom stared at her.

"Is there something I should know, Catherine? You've been acting strange both shifts" he said. Catherine let out a dramatic sigh and rolled her eyes.

"Remember what I said about a blind man being able to see what's going on around here? Well, apparently that was not subtle enough for you. I saw Sara leaving your office earlier" she said with a smirk and Grissom stared at her while closing his briefcase.

"Cath, where are you going with this? I don't have time to play games" he said, sounding slightly annoyed. Catherine felt like banging his head against the desk, but instead took a deep breath and cleared her mind of those evil thoughts.

"Just do me a favor; at least call her, okay?" Catherine asked and smiled at Grissom before exiting the office before he had the chance to protest. As he watched her disappear out of sight, he finally realized what she had been hinting at all through both shifts. What she had been hinting at for the past five years actually, but it wasn't until now that Grissom finally understood what he had to do. He had let Sara walked out of the lab too many times over the years, never even so much as called her and definitely not gone after her. Each time she had drifted further away from him and Grissom now knew that one day he would be too late, just like Sara had said two years earlier. And just the bare thought of living a life without Sara in it was something he had never considered before. He had just assumed she would always be there, one way or the other. But now it dawned on Grissom that Sara would leave him and the lab way too soon.

* * *

Sara turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around her, before walking into the bedroom again. She slipped into a pair of sweatpants and pulled on a T-shirt. Even though she was still completely exhausted, she couldn't find the peace to sleep just yet. She wandered out to the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker, and then searching in the fridge for something ate able. There wasn't much in there besides milk and juice. Sara sighed and closed the door, walking over to the telephone. Her days of not ordering take-out frequently had been short-lived, considering her experience in cooking food wasn't something to exactly brag about. And right now she was way too tired to even think about cooking anything at all. After a few seconds the call had been made and her order was place. Sara put down the phone and leaned towards the kitchen counter, glancing over at the coffee maker. It was getting late and all she had accomplished since she got home was taking a shower, getting dressed, turning on the coffee maker and ordering take-out. Sara sighed heavily and walked over to the couch, not being able to stand in the kitchen and waiting for the coffee to get done. She sat down and started flipping through an old magazine, too tired to even see the words properly. So after a few minutes she tossed the magazine aside and leaned back, slowly closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep within moments.

Already after the first signal, Sara opened up her eyes and grabbed the cell phone lying on the coffee table. She looked down at the I.D and then answered the call.

"That's the second time you woke me up. I'm starting to wonder if you have a sixth sense for it" she said with a teasing smile.

"Not that I'm aware of but you never know. So I take it you're still pretty tired?" Grissom asked and Sara looked over at the coffee maker.

"Guess you can say that. I'm just relived the case is closed" she said as she walked over to the kitchen and took out a coffee cup from one of the cabinets.

"We all are. So…how are you feeling?" Grissom asked, sounding a bit uncomfortable.

"You mean aside from hardly being able to keep my eyes open? Look, Grissom, there's really no need to worry about me. You know me; I'll be fine!" Sara said as she filled up the cup with coffee. She wasn't used to him worrying this much about her, but she would be lying to herself if she denied liking it.

"Sounds you made coffee" Grissom said suddenly and Sara froze.

"You do know that spying on people is illegal?" she asked, glancing around the apartment.

"I do. And I'm not. I just got very good hearing" Grissom said and Sara smiled. Not only because he just seemed to have that affect on her, but also because she felt silly for accusing him of spying on her.

"I don't know if I'm finding that very impressive or just creepy" Sara said, leaning towards the kitchen counter and taking a swig of the coffee.

"Well hopefully not creepy" Grissom said and suddenly there was a knock on the door. Sara put down the coffee cup on the kitchen counter and took a quick look at herself in the hallway mirror. Her hair was dry by now and had become slightly curly, and in general she look good enough to answer the door.

"I'm gonna take your word for it. Excuse me for a moment" Sara said and opened up the door. Instead of being greeted by the delivery boy, Sara found herself staring at Grissom.

"Grissom…?" she asked, slowly putting away the cell phone while staring at him.

"May I come in?" he asked and Sara opened up the door wider, completely stunned for the moment. Grissom looked around the apartment and entered the kitchen, glancing at the cup of coffee standing on the kitchen counter.

"Uhm, Grissom, don't take this the wrong way but…what are you doing here?" Sara asked nervously and walked past him. She picked up the coffee cup and took a sip of the coffee while staring at him.

"I guess you can say it's because of something Catherine said" Grissom said and stared back at her.

"Catherine? Well now I'm _really _curious" Sara said and Grissom couldn't help but smile. He had planned in staying very serious since he wanted to discuss some very serious things with her, but seeing her like this made it hard for him not to smile.

"What?" Sara asked when she noticed he was smiling at her for no apparent reason.

"Nothing. I was just…thinking" Grissom said and looked away. As he pretended admiring the apartment again, he realized it actually said quite a few things about who Sara Sidle really was.

"Right. Well anyways; want some coffee? No need to brag about it being freshly made" Sara said.

"If it's not an inconvenience" Grissom said and watched as Sara went to fetch a coffee mug for him. She filled it up with smoking hot coffee and then walked over to him again.

"Here you go. Black and no sugar, right?" she asked with a nervous smile and Grissom nodded slightly.

"Thank you. Well, I must say you have yourself a very cozy apartment" Grissom said as he took a swig of his coffee, glancing around the kitchen. Finally he ended up staring straight at Sara, who stood inches away from him. He hadn't stopped by for some coffee and to admire her apartment, although it did look very cozy. There was a far more important reason behind his visit and he knew he couldn't stall it much longer before Sara would become suspicious.

"Thanks. By the way, you never answered my question" Sara said and Grissom froze.

"What question?" he asked and put down the coffee mug on the kitchen counter.

"What did Catherine say that made you come here?" Sara asked with an inquiring smile. Grissom went through the many ways of answering that question, but none of them seemed right.

"She asked me to do her a favor" he finally said and Sara gave him a confused look.

"Really? Dare I ask what it was?" Sara asked and there was something about Grissom's silence that gave her butterflies in her stomach. It wasn't the silence itself but the way he kept looking at her mainly.

"She asked me to call you" Grissom said after a while and the butterflies in Sara's stomach multiplied as soon as he had uttered those words. She stared at him, holding her breath for a moment.

"Oh…" she said quietly, not knowing what else to say. The shock was almost too much for he to be able to think properly at all. She had waited for this moment for years and even now she was afraid that it might not even be real. A phone call didn't really mean anything, but somehow she knew this call was different.

"She actually made me realize something I should've realized a long time ago" Grissom said, still unsure about Sara would react to all of this. She didn't dare to speak and just stared at him, praying for the butterflies to go away soon.

"Sara, it took me two years to finally understand what you meant about being too late. And I just hope that I'm not too late, because I now know what's right for me. I guess all these years I've been trying to ignore something that wouldn't go away, and now I don't want it to. Because now I finally see what's been right in front of me all along since the beginning" Grissom said and Sara was even more shocked now than before. She couldn't believe Grissom had actually just said that. The man that had been speechless for less had just opened up to her, just like she always wanted, and now she wasn't sure how to respond.

"What are you saying, Grissom?" she asked, the butterflies immediately gone. Now was her chance to find out why he had been sending her mixed signals for five years and all of the sudden practically confessed his feeling for her. She couldn't just move on without knowing why.

"I'm saying that…I love you" Grissom said without really thinking, and now Sara was completely stunned. Never in her wildest imaginations had she expected him to say something like that to her. Those three little words that meant the world to so many people, but she had never been used to hearing them. And now Grissom had actually said them to her, and she just knew that he meant every word.

"That's what I thought" Sara said with a big grin on her face and took a step closer to Grissom. They were closer than they had ever been before and both just staring enchanting at each other. Sara then smiled and leaned in even closer. As their lips met in the first kiss, a shiver went through her body. This was truly the moment she had waited for what had felt like an eternity. Never been allowed to be this close to him and especially not allowed to kiss him. Sara closed her eyes and hoping that this moment would last forever. She also enjoyed knowing that she no longer had to dream about stealing a kiss; it was actually possible now. As the kiss grew starting getting more intense, they embraced each other and that wonderful feeling inside of Sara grew stronger. Now she finally had everything she could ever ask for and she wouldn't want it any other way. All the anger faded away and left was the happiness that would leave her smiling for days to come. Now she knew what people meant when they talked about true happiness, because now she had finally found it. And she was never gonna let it slip out of her hands.

* * *

**THE END! (Hopefully it was to your satisfaction - I always get very giggly & nervous when I'm writing "love scenes" like this one. Especially when it comes to Sara and Grissom which isn't exactly all "lovey dovey" otherwise. But I hope I did a decent enough job. And don't forget to keep your eyes open for my other CSI fan fic in a few months!) Bye-bye! throws kisses at everybody ;)**


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